I I MY SOMALI BOOK X MY SOMALI BOOK A RECORD OF TWO SHOOTING TRIPS BY CAPTAIN A. H. E. MOSSE, F.Z.S. INDIAN ARMY ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR AND WITH SKETCHES AND COVER-DESIGN KY LIEUT. D. D. HASKARD, R.A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COL. H. G. G. SWAYNE, R.E., F.Z.S. AUTHOR OF "seventeen TRIPS IN SOMALILAND " LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, LTD. 1913 TO K. C. M. 507284 PKEFACE Of the making of books upon big game shooting, of late years, there may seem to be no end. For the production of another some apology may appear neces- sary. But I liave no intention of apologising. This book was written in the first instance for my own * amusement, during a period when I found myself stationed in an out-of-the-way corner of India, where of other white men there were none. If an excuse be needed for its publication, it may perhaps be found in the fact that whereas there have been many recent works upon sport in other parts of Africa, Somaliland has for a number of years been left out in the cold. Moreover, judging by myself, I believe that a new work of this kind, provided it be true, will always be of interest to the brotherhood of big game hunters — no small class at the present day. That this book of mine will make any appeal to a wider public is more than I can venture to expect ; though to some few, especially if they be lovers of Nature, I hope that it may. To this end the pen-and-ink sketches with which it is illustrated should be of material assistance, for I am confident I shall not be alone in thinking them J attractive ; and I cannot be suflflciently grateful to their creator, my friend Mr. Haskard, for the pains vu viii PREFACE he has bestowed upon them. Their truth and their artistic quahties speak for themselves. I consider myself fortunate, also, in being honoured with an Introduction from the pen of Colonel H. G. C. Swayne, R.E., one of the first and greatest of the Somali explorers, whose name will be familiar to many of my readers as an authority both upon the country of which I write, and upon big game shooting generally. To him, for his kind interest in this work of mine, are due my most grateful thanks. I must also express my indebtedness for valuable criticisms upon the chapter on rifles, etc., to Captain Godfrey Marchant, I. A. ; and to my cousin, H. F. M. Tyler, I.C.S. This chapter, and that on some aspects of the theory of protective colouration in the larger animals, deal with somewhat controversial questions upon which I have no desire to lay down the law, but I hope that they may be found not entirely without value as contributions to their respective subjects. It is not possible now, alas ! for my thanks to reach one other friend to whose kindly interest and encourage- ment the existence of this book is in part due, and by whom three or four of the photographs reproduced in it were taken ; I refer to the late Captain x\. B. Eckford,of the Central India Horse, whose tragic death from a Persian raider's bullet, some months ago, lias robbed the Indian Army of one of its most promising officers, and me of a valued personal friend. So un- timely an end to such a life seems so cruelly unnecessary, but at least he died as he would have chosen, leading his men against a foe. His death is PREFACE ix unavenged, but by those who had the privilege of his friendship he is not, and will not, be forgotten. Finally, my acknowledgments are due to the proprietors of the Indian Field, in the pages of which periodical an abridged account of my Somali experiences first appeared. A. H. E. M. London, August, 1913. CONTEXTS PAGE Introduction ......... . xix CHAPTER I SomaliJand — First trip from Aden — Berbeia : preliminary arrange- ments— General description of Somaliland — Physical features, etc. — Inhabitants — Fauna ....... 1 CHAPTER II Start from Berbera — Fust meeting with aoul : description — Deragodleh and Lafarus; — Mandera : lesser kudu : dik-dik — Birds : the million- aire myna : king-crow — ^The Somali leopard : sittmg up for him : bad luck — Black-backed jackal — Greater kudu : a fine trophy — ^A leopard's " kill " : no luck again — Carrion birds : crow and mon- goose 13 CHAPTER III Across the Golis Range — Adadleh — Chita — Speke's gazelle — Bull oryx wounded and lost — Description of oryx beisa — A jungle uiterlude — " Bounders " among beasts — The spotted hyaena : his character and habits — Descnption ot gere II uk — Tuyo Plain — '^ Somajesti'' . . 27 CHAPTER IV The Hand — Otocyon — ^Midgan hunters — How to attract lions — My first dibatag — On the tracks of the King of Beasts : first sight of him — • Blank days — Another long day after a Uon : agam but a gUmpse — The Somah's bump of locahty — Lose a donkey in an unusual way — ^Description of dibatag — Bad shootmg — My first oryx — Northward again — Why I had no luck with Uons ...... 40 CHAPTER V Tuyo again — Secretary birds — Shooting aoul on the Plam : a grand gaUop — Erratic shootmg : the explanation — Two good heads — The Khansa bush : a leopard's " kill " — Bag a small leopard — Leopard and hyaenas — A long day : the elusive lesser kudu — The Jerato Pass : alakut : an unintentional crime — Mandera again : meet H. — Shoot xi h xii CONTENTS PAGE a lesser kudu at last— A good gerenuk—Pe\ze]D's gazelkv-Back in Berbera — The end of the trip ....... 53 CHAPTER VI Plans for a second trip— Things go Avrong — M.'s success— My new battery — An aggravating delay — Start again — Berbera once more — Difficulties— Abdilleh Ashur— The rest of my followmg— The kharif — Start for Hargcisa — In the Reserve : partridges : sand-grouse — Weaver-birds : how to keep a husband out of mischief — Hitting a friend when he is down — Pork in sanctuary — Hargeisa : its in- habitants— The Emperor Menelek : " sacrament rations " — An irrelevant yarn : Colonial Office exports — The A. P. O.'s poultry — All ill return for my host's hospitality ..... o7 CHAPTER VII After Hargeisa — The roller and liis colouring — Shooting lesser bustard with a rifle — A good dhero — Striped hyaena — The second of August : Cressd dies nota : a troop of lions : two lionesses shot — After the lions agaui : bag three more — Good tracking — Success of the Paradox ........... 82 CHAPTER VIII Shootuig on the march — Gerenuk — Parturiunt mmites — Bad water — My " milk-man " — Halal — ^The hyaena's laugh — Additions to the bag — Greater bustard — Aotd i-Awn — Kotunwein — Shooting oowZ ,• the effect of high wind — Night-watching : a bad let-off — Conso- lation in store — The reward of good tracking : death of a grand black-maned lion — Lions jumping into zaribas .... 94 CHAPTER IX The Sahib a universal healer — Milch-camels lost — Baby gercmik — Tameness of antelo|X! in the dusk — Leopard's " kill " up a tree — Why it came there : the tale writ in the sandy soil : leopard and imrdba — Horace in the wilds : sentiment and a crimmal — A fractious camel — A Somali zariba — Sitting up for a leopard : scored oflf ! — Water and mud — A move southward . . . .111 CHAPTER X The Haud again — Difficulty of shooting dibatag — Mysterious circles — Butterflies : the " Painted Lady " — Birds at Libah Ale : night- jar : grey shrike : hoopoe — How the hoopoe gauied his crest — CONTENTS xiii PAGS A wily jackal — A good dibatag — Chitas : no luck — North again — A leopard's escape — The bateleur eagle — Gerenuk : two bad shots and a good one — Back at Kotunwein — An exasperating incident : souwjesti the aard-woK — Somali animal nomenclature — Bustard and secretary bird— Characteristics of the aard-woLE — Kluirimli killed by lion — Tuyo Plaiii : an exceptional aoul head — A stormy sunset 123 CHAPTER XI A westward move — Jeiuiie — Death of a marauder — Oryx on the Sella Plain — A drowned camp — Aior — ^Lesser kudu bull : an opportunity missed — Lioness with cubs : Abdilleh's lucky shot : aU's well that ends well — Iddu Khan : out of the eater came forth meat — Uses of a dead Uon — Baby caracal — Camel lolled by big lion : a fruitless vigil ; the lion's roar — The lesser kudu bull again : elusive as usual — Capture of one of the lion cubs — An exciting night — Tracking the enemy — A pretty shot and another lioness — Colour of Somali lions — Genet — My Abyssinian permit : too late — Sonny and his foster-mother — Tracks of a big lion : lose them — A good aoul — A long day on the Aror ban — My best oryx : sad loss of a hom — S Wayne's hartebeest — Another good oryx — A second hartebeest — Jackals at dinner — The aoul as an animal of the plains : Mr. Elliott's opinion — Speed of the aoul ...... 137 CHAPTER XII Northward to Ogo-CTuban — Ostriches : a stratagem from Shakespeare — Birds out of place — C4rey jackal — Dik-dik — The cattle couutiy — '■ Spur-fowl " — CTcbili — Absence of game — A big tortoise — Ticks — Sonny and the other babies — Balls of fluff — Khobar of two big lions : on their tracks : not this time — Thinking for himseLf— Asa hills: " conies "—Tracks of elephants — BarkaHagar — Loss of lynx kitten — A night to be remembered : an audacious visitor : lioness or leopard ? — No. 2 : a beautiful leopard — An omhious sound : warabas waiting for the end — DayUght : No. 1 : all that was left of a big leopard — The day's resources : The sound of the trumpet — Marodi — An audience of Royalty : elephants at close quarters — Greater kudu — A would-be robber . . . . . . . .158 CHAPTE^ XIII Death of Jennie — Daga Hayer — A grand lesser kudu and another lost opportunity — My last oryx — A too early duck — Hed Godir — KHp- springer — Perfect ugliness : a wart-hog — Otocyon hunting in a xiv CONTENTS PAGE pack — Dubur — The damty little baira : a chance missed and a cruel disappomtment — Some compensation : a greater kudu shot — ^The Maritime hills— A giant fig-tree — Baboons— The last day's march : riding the low moon out of the sky — Pelzehi's gazelle : two good heads — The last incident : Elmi bitten by a snake : no evil results : Berbera once more — Selling off : an auction that ended suddenly— Paying off : Somali gratitude— A word for my shikaris — Abdilleh : his pluck — Luck, good and bad — ^The last of Somali- land— And of Sonny— The Call of the Wild . . . .175 CHAPTER XIV General notes — List of animals shot and encountered — ^The leopard in SomaUland : some points in night- watohmg — " Leopard " or " panther " ? — The lesser kudu : its elusiveness — Effectiveness of the "318 rifle : the capped bullet : the aperture rear-sight — The Sherwood rifle : its powers and limitations — Necessity for insisting on these hmitations — Reasons why 150 yards should be considered the maximum range for this and similar rifles — Long ranges : trajectory and eye-sight — Importance of the first shot — Wounded animals — Averages — Do animals feel pain ? — Cruelty in Nature — Views of Dr. Wallace and Mr. Long : criticisms — " BriUiant " joui-nalism — Diminution of game in Somaliland ? — Independence of a fountam pen ......... 191 CHAPTER XV Protective colouration in animals — Theory carried to extremes— A reaction which goes too far — ^Mr. Selous' views — Fallacious basis of his deductions from observations correct in themselves — Alter- natives to the protective colouration theory — Darmn and sexual selection — Dr. Wallace : recognition marks — No theory adequate to take the place of protective colouration — What do Selous' observa- tions really prove ? — The kudu's stripes — The zebra at the present day — The quagga : explanation of its uniform colouration — A first clue to the problem's solution : the zebra probably originally an inhabitant of thick jungle — Habits of carnivora — Do the Felidae hunt by scent ? — Evidence to the contrary — Nocturnal habits of the lion — Probability that the lion originally hunted by day — Evolutionary development in both lion and zebra — Deduction that colouration was originally evolved under different conditions when protection by concealment was of value — Colour at night — Smaller animals — Why the buffalo is not protectively coloured — Conclusion that objections to the theory of protective colouration in the larger animals are onl}' objections in seeming — The harmony of Nature 214 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER XVI PAGE Bmulohast — Shooting licenses — Kit and equipment — ^Stores, etc. — Transport : camels— Rations — 'Mounts — Presents — Personnel of caravan : rates of pay — Head man — Details of actual expenses — Shikaris : importance of having a good man — Staunchness- Danger in big game shooting : the lion — Seventeen trips in Somali- land — Present conditions in Somaliland : unsettled state of Interior — Government distribution of rifles — The poUcy of concentration on the coast : two sides to the question— The arms traffic and the Mullah — Reasons for change of policy — A mistaken idea — -Broken pledges ? — Position of the European community in Berbera — As tilings are — The future ........ 236 o" CHAPTER XVII Rifles for dangerous game : importance of the subject — Brief summary of conclusions — A detailed examination of the question — Classes of game : and of rifles — Requirements in a rifle : to hit : to kill — Characteristics of the Felidae and conditions under which they are usually shot — Necessity of handiness and stopping-power — The rifle — Single, magazine, and double rifles : pros and cons : superiority of the double-barrul — The bullet — ^How aft'ected by increased velocity — Changes in form and material — Penetration : expansion : stabiUty — The perfect buUet — Effect on a bullet of variations in form, weight, and velocity — Size of bore a prime factor ill efliciency — Shock-effect of slow velocity bullets — Mr. Hicks' views — Three kinds of shock ? — Velocity and resistance as affecting expansion — Form of bullet and Uability to deflection — Summmg up : the best type of bullet — Detailed list of modem rifles — Class I. : Ex- press rifles — Class II. : small-bore H.V. rifles — Quotations : Glas- furd : Sharp : Stigand and Lyell : criticisms — First-class shots and small-bores — The average shot — Groups of smaU-bores : Group (a) : {b) : (c) : the -318— The -280 Ross— Class III. : medium- bore H.V. rifles— The -400— The soft-nosed bullet : Sii- A. Pease's theory — The capped bullet — Bores larger than '400 — Class IV. : shot-and-ball guns — ^The Paradox : its characteristics — The Explora — The 12-bore spherical bullet : compared with the Paradox bullet and the medium H.V. bullet — The charge with spherical ball — Final choice of a weapon — Other factors in making a decision : ex^iense : physique : the work the rifle has to do — ^The best all-round rifle ? — For leopard — Bear — Pachyderms — Buffalo — " Sportsman- ship " — Opinion of Sir A. Pease on the general question — Of Major Glasfurd — Conclusion ........ 258 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE The King Frontispiece On the March j „ A "Blood" of the Bee Ali) Gerenuk 1 ng Oryx Beisa) Eagle in the HaudI .^ "Oryx A sinus" ) Klipspringer I g.^ PiIVEE-BED near DaGA HaYER I Pelzeln's Gazelle! ^2 Speke's Gazelle ) A Brace of Beauties | ^a A ISTicE Group | Thirsty ! Somali Sheep and Goats Watering) Pool at Kotunwein ) T A Game-carrier I ,-i Die AT AG ) I 135 AouL ^VITH 2O5-INCH Horns Crossing a Eiver-bed near Daga Hayer) Skinning an Oryx ) I . . . 151 Lioness of 7th September and Midgan Trackers! T^vo Babies — Lion and Lynx) ,.„ I ....... Lbz "Jennie" ) xvii \ xviii LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS „ „ ^ TO FACE PAGE -Puzzle— Find the Elephants! I " The Little Electric Lamp SHOWED A Beautiful Leopard I . 172 THE MOST Cleanly Spotted I have ever seen" j Lioness op 5th September j [ 201 The Home of the Kudu— Bark a Hagar 242 A ]\riD-DAY Halt — unloading j The Personnel of the Expedition) Henduleh with Aoul j 275 A Typical Tuq (Dry Watercourse)) INTRODUCTION It is to be feared that the country, which has been the scene of Captain Mosse's experiences, will be closed for years to come. This is to be regretted not only by the shikari, but also by those, and they are many, who have really made friends with this cheery, kindly, intelligent, and least fanatical of Mahomedan races. It is to be regretted most by the few who knew the country in the earlier days, before it had begun to make history. In 1884, it was an unknown wilderness nominall}^ held by Egypt, with the little Mahomedan State of Harar in the south-west corner, presenting a bulwark towards Abyssinia. We owe our first acquaintance with the Somalis to Sir Richard Burton, who went to Harar, and to an intrepid French explorer, Georges Revoil, who opened up the hills immediately behind the Warsangali and Mijerten coasts. In 1884 F. L. James explored the Webbe Shabeli River, and the Government of India took over Somaliland, with the exception of Harar, from Egypt, as a result of the Soudan retirement. In 1887 Harar fell into the hands of Abyssinia. From then onwards Somaliland was peacefully developed by the Indian Government. In the interior, Ogaden Somali raids on coast-bound caravans were checked ; and the country was paying. At this period it may XX INTRODUCTION be described as directly under India, with occasional interventions from Home. In 1899 the activities of Abyssinia, awakened since the taking of Harar and further made easy by the free importation of arms from those parts of the coasts outside our influence, together with the prohibition on our own coast, roused the opposition of Ogaden, and the whole interior was thrown into a turmoil by the preaching of a Jeliad against Abyssinia and against England by the " Mad Mullah." From this time the hitherto peaceful, economical development of the country was handicapped bj^ heavy war-bills. About this time the affairs of Somaliland passed' wholly into the hands of the Home Authorities. Somaliland, which began to be known as a hole in John Bull's pocket, w^as, as can be seen bj^ perusal of the newspapers of the day, drawn into the vortex of party politics at Home, and began to be used appa- rently as a stick by each political party to beat the other with. ' / We have now retired to the coast and have, it seems, allowed the interior tribes to acquire rifles, with which to find their own salvation. The happy hunting-grounds of the interior are now practically closed, and we shall hear little further in the newspapers of the Somali until the interests of white farmers from Nairobi, settled in the future round Mount Kenia and the sources of the Tana River to the south, or the politics of the Abyssinian neighbour to the west, re-awaken the attention of people in England. Captain Mosse is a true sportsman. Like most Anglo-Indian and African Shikaris of the keenest INTRODUCTION xxi stamp, he shoots on foot, spares no pains, and accounts that species most valuable which gives most trouble ; he takes an interest in the ways of the people, the large game, and the birds, and gives us the result of much original observation. He gives us, too, most valuable information from the sportsman's point of view, as to the capabilities of the various types of modern weapons. Through Captain Mosse's arguments on rifles runs a general tendency to uphold, up to a certain point, powerful rifles and moderately large calibres, wherein T absolutely agree with him ; though I would go still further than he does. One often travels thou- sands of miles by stream, hundreds of miles with pack transport, to get a shot at a particular species. One arrives at last, tired, carrying one's loaded rifle, at a point where one may, and sooner or later will, if one X^erseveres, see an animal for about three seconds. Here, to have carried a little extra weight is beside the point, so long as by careful perseverance one has got there. Then, in the name of all that is sensible, have the heaviest, most powerful, most efficient, weapon you can bring to the spot, provided you can carry it yourself and handle it with ease and quickness at the important moment. Its weight will help you to two trump cards in the game, stopping power and range combined ; it will give you a third trump card, that is, all the safety that an adequate weapon can provide ; without this you may have exciting adven- tures, but you will not shoot long, as some animal will, sooner or later, get you, if you persist in using very light rifles. xxii INTRODUCTION I agree with Captain Mosse that the true ball-and- shot gun has vaKiable properties, especially for a man of light physique, in the combination it affords of a large bullet with the handiness of a shot gun. I have found even the old black powder Paradox a very effective weapon. I am in doubt, after long experience of both, which of the two weapons is better, (1) the heavier kind of magazine high-velocity rifle, with its half-dozen shots, which can be fired in fairly rapid succession, the hand automatically reloading by a few easy movements of the lever, leaving eye and brain free to watch the quickly-moving animal ; or (2) the heavy double high- velocity rifle (or Paradox for thin-skinned game), with its first pair of shots delivered with lightning rapidit}^ by merely slipping the finger to the second trigger or by using a single trigger twice. In the case of a double barrel, the first two shots, which do not always stop a buffalo or lion, are probably followed by fumbling in the pockets or cartridge-belt, searchings of memory as to which pocket they are in, and a look at the rifle to see which barrel has been already dis- charged and which has to be re-loaded. Meanwhile the animal has either got you, or has vanished. As I say, I am still absolutely in doubt as to which it is best to use, a heav}^ magazine rifle of the type of which the -404 and -425 are the most notable examples ; or the heavy to medium double high velocity rifle of -450 to '475 bore. I have found the '404 not at all too heavy for markhor ground, nor should the other magazine rifles named be too heavy. Any one using a magazine rifle should keep a full set INTRODUCTION xxiii of dummy cartridges and constantly test the feeding action, for a jamb at the critical moment puts the rifle utterly out of action. Captain Mosse would prefer the double rifle and, in that form, is inclined to consider anything above •400 bore rather heavy. My present practice is to carry a magazine rifle on the march, the double being usually unloaded, in the hands of an attendant ; for close work, the double is best ; for distant work the magazine rifle. For the smaller animals I would use the heavy rifles to avoid keeping up too man}^ weapons, though of course they are over powerful for that purpose alone. Captain Mosse considers the lion probably the most dangerous wild animal in attack. I think I would put the buffalo first, then the lion or tiger, then the leopard, elephant, Indian bear of the plains, and rhinoceros, in order as I have named them. It is more difficult to take sides in the question of protective colouring. My experience is that in various surroundings, the giraffe in the dappled shade of a flat- topped giant mimosa ; the zebra on a grass plain ; the buffalo and elephant in heavy thicket ; the black bear among the pine-stumps of a Himalayan glade ; most wild animals, in fact, will generally find an envi- ronment, which will curiously chance to suit their colouring. They also to a certain extent reflect to the eye of the observer from their coats, however dull, the colours of objects round them. It is, moreover, nearly certain that animals have, even within known history, changed their habits. It is said the American bison, conspicuous and hunted in xxiv INTRODUCTION the plains, took to the bush before it was finally exterminated ; may there not have been some other influence acting in ancient times, which originally drove it from the bush into the open ? While on this subject it is interesting to notice that the fighting man may be liable to similar changes in the matter of colouring of clothing. In the days of the short-range musket, conspicuous colouring was good enough ; later, khaki was used ; to-da}^ a Con- tinental nation is discussing a ncAv fighting dress, and a distinctive uniform is preferred to khaki ; to prevent any chance, it would seem, in these days of long ranges, of gunners peppering their own side. The question of distinctive or protective colouring in animals is an intricate one, not yet solved, depending on a variety of reasons, and not alone on sex attrac- tion or on the necessity of concealment for offence or defence. Somaliland has been an ideal hunting ground. It is one great wilderness, practically without cultivation or villages, here nearty a thorny desert, there rising to the grandest plateau, anything up to 7000 feet, with woodland scenery of beauty perhaps unsurpassed elsewhere ; you can go on horse-back, camel-back, or on foot, practically in any direction you like, if you carry a few days' supply of water. The people have an intense love of sport, not merely for meat, and in this they differ from most African races. They are naturally hospitable to strangers. The game is difficult to bring to bag, which is a recommendation to the true sportsman ; and one is not bothered by mobs of half- tame zebras or hartebeestes ranging across the front, INTRODUCTION xxv when one is after rarer game, as they do m East xA.frica further south. I think that man}^ men, whose wanderings with the rifle have been world-wide, will look back to their association with these pluck}^ sociable, and intelligent Somali hunters and camel-men, as among their pleasantest memories. It is sad to think that political exigencies have now practically closed these regions ; and the sports- man, at least, will welcome any complications in the future which will again open up the country, and give him back his lost hunting grounds. H. G. C. SWAYNE. 1912. MY SOMALI BOOK CHAPTER I Somaliland — First trip from Aden — Berbera : prelimiiiaiy arrangements — General description of Somaliland — Physical features, etc. — Inhabitants — Fauna. An arid desert country beneath a scorching tropical sun : the home of a " Mad Mullah," cause of one of the most prolonged and least successful of our " little wars " : absorbing blood and money but making no return : a sad example of our muddling policy, or want of policy ; right or wrong that is, I think, a very prevalent impression of Somaliland. But it has other and more pleasing aspects. Much of the country dry and barren it yet has striking variations of scenery. Its inhabitants, whether you like them or not, are an interesting race, with a higher place in the scale of humanity than the majority at least of the negro tribes. Their origin is somewhat uncertain, but they undoubtedly have a liberal strain of Arab blood, and their features, except to some extent their lips, show nothing of the negroid type. And from the sportsman's point of view, with which I am mainly concerned, the country still provides, though without such an extensive fauna as that of East Africa B 2 MY SOMALI BOOK for instance, one of the finest hunting-grounds in the world. So that when I found myself condemned for a term of years to a sojourn on the barren rock of Aden, it was not surprising that the proximity of Somaliland seemed to afford some compensation in the prospect of an expedition to add to my experiences in the way of big game shooting, which hitherto had been confined to India. Aden is the starting-point for nearly all expeditions to Somaliland, and it was not difficult to gather in- formation as to ways and means. So it came about that January, 1907, saw me, with four weeks' leave, on my way to Berbera in a little local steamer. At Berbera I was met by H., an old friend stationed there, who was well up to the ropes and had under- taken to get my caravan together for me. The individual he had engaged for me as first shikari and head-man, a Somali of the Habr Awal tribe named Elmi Hirsi, 28 or 30 years of age, turned up at H.'s bungalow and we were soon discussing how to make the most of the four short weeks I had before me. The line usually taken by shooting parties from Berbera starts with a four days' march south- west to Hargeisa, the most westerly of the then existing Government posts in the interior. MY SOMALI BOOK 3 Between Berbera and Hargeisa, however, there was practically no shooting to be had, and H., who had already talked it over with Elmi, said I had much better, as my leave was so short, make a bee-line due south to the Hand, the great waterless plateau which extends across the centre of Somaliland, commencing a hundred miles from the coast. I should thus sooner have an opportunity of letting off my rifle, have a greater chance of getting a lion, and probably do better all round than would be possible, with my short leave, by following the more beaten track. Had anything more been needed to quicken my decision, there lay on the floor of H.'s room the skin of one of the biggest lions ever killed in Somaliland. He had bagged it the previous month in Elmi's com- pan}^, on a flying trek of a fortnight only, to the very place where he now wanted to send me. So that w^as settled. The next thing was to decide that, for a month, it was better to hire camels than to buy ; and after going over ni}^ kit, to calculate that I must take eight camels from Berbera. On nearing the waterless Haud, it would be necessary to hire four or five more to carry water only. There were other things to be considered ; but as I propose, in a subsequent chapter, to go in some detail into the question of transport and general requirements for a trip such as mine, I need only say now that, thanks to H., everything was ready and the caravan started on its southward way by 1 p.m. on the following day — less than 48 hours after leaving Aden. The human element in the caravan was composed 4 MY SOMALI BOOK of John, my old Madrasi bearer, and an Indian Maho- medan police orderly who accompanied me from Aden, with eleven Somalis consisting of three shikaris, five camel-men, one syce, and two youngsters— a cook-boy to help John and a donkey-boy to look after the lesser animals. These latter were two donkeys, half a dozen sheep, and two milch-goats. For my own riding, I had brought from Aden a half-bred Arab pony, Brian, and had hired a riding- mule to take his place when necessary or for Elmi to ride on occasion. There was also an extra " weight- carrying " donkey for John. The eight camels, which completed the four-footed portion of the outfit, of course carried all the baggage, comprising stores, rifles and ammunition, personal kit, an 80-lb. tent, camp equipment, water-tanks, and rations for the men. This last consisted of rice, dates, and ghee (clarified butter) ; the amount for the whole trip calculated on a regulation daily allowance of 1 lb. rice, J lb. dates, and 2 oz. ghee per man. This would be supplemented by meat now and then when game was plentiful, and an occasional sheep. Except for meat and milk (sometimes), one cannot count upon obtaining any article of food in the interior, so everything had to be taken with us. My battery consisted of a 12-bore shot gun, a •355 Mannlicher-Schonauer magazine rifle, and two double express (black jDo^v^der) rifles, -500 and '57 7 ; the latter a grand killing weapon but decidedly heavy to carry about. As I have said the caravan made a start at 1 o'clock, Elmi and I to follow later in the afternoon. But MY SOMALI BOOK 5 before doing so I may as well try and give some slight idea of the nature of the country and its inhabitants, and the possibilities that lay before us, even if this involves little but a repetition of what others have written before. Somaliland may be divided into three distinct tracts of country^- — 1. The fringe of maritime plain between the mountains and the sea. 2. The maritime hills : these form ridges parallel to the coast, and isolated peaks, connected by plateaux and low-lying valleys, and separated by a loftier mountain ridge, of which the Golis Range is the most noteworthy part, from 3. A series of raised plateaux to the south, gradually sloping down from the Abyssinian Highlands in the west to the eastern coast. The British Protectorate occupies the north-central portion, with a coast-line of some 440 miles and an area of about 58,000 square miles, and extends inland in the centre for from 150 to 200 miles.* To deal more particularly with the west-central portion of the Protectorate, with which I am per- sonally acquainted. Near the coast the country is of a semi-desert character with little vegetation except stunted thorn-bushes. Vegetation increases, with thick jungle in places, as the altitude rises past the stony maritime hills up to the Golis Range, much of which is well-wooded. This district (between Golis and the sea) is known as Guban. * Vide Military Report on SomalUand, 6 MY SOMALI BOOK South of the Golis is Ogo, a district composed of comparatively flat country varying in character from thick thorn jungle to open scrub and grassy plains, which passes into the Haud, a great elevated undu- lating plateau that in and after the rain}^ season affords excellent pasture, but for some months in the year is waterless. Its surface is covered with jungle, sometimes very thick, sometimes fairty open, inter- spersed with areas of rolling plain ; toewards the east of a semi-desert character. Through the Haud runs the Anglo- Abyssinian boundary, a somewhat arbitrary line fixed by the Agreement of 1897, previous to which the British sphere of influence extended vaguely further to the south. Of rivers there are in British Somaliland practically none. But there are many shallow sandy water- courses, which heavy rains fill with rushing streams for an hour or two, and as these subside leave pools that, except in the dry season, are an important source of water supply. But these and the pans of water in casual depressions dry up quickly with the cessation of the rains — dry up is hardly the right expression, as the trouble lies in the porous nature of the soil, which fails to retain the water on its surface. It follows that in the dry season wells are the only source of water supply, and these may be several days' journey apart. It is a mistake to suppose that Somaliland is nowhere fertile, witness the vegetation on the Golis or in parts of Ogo-Guban. As a matter of fact, there is no lack of fertile soil and the rainfall is not deficient, so that the only thing necessary to complete the requirements of an agriculturist is the construction of MY SOMALI BOOK 7 reservoirs to contain a permanent water supply, and this, we have the word of an engineer in Colonel Swayne, is perfectly practicable ; indeed, he mentions the existence of traces of ancient tanks that must have been made and used long before the time of the Somal. Whether the nature of the human element in the conditions of the present day could ever justifj^ expenditure on such an object was more than doubtful while we still exerted a measure of control over the friendly tribes. Now that we have withdrawn to the coast any discussion of the subject must be purely academic. But so long as the Somali continues, as he has always done, to look upon a raid on his neighbours' property as the one form of recreation that is worth while, the risks of tempting fortune by the growth of crops of any kind would be too great for those who might otherwise be disposed to make the attempt. So it comes about that, except in isolated instances of settlements such as Hargeisa, under an influential Mullah whose holiness preserves him from molestation, cultivation is non-existent. All the Somalis one comes across in the interior are nomad shepherds or, sometimes, members of trading 8 MY SOMALI BOOK caravans. Permanent settlements are few and far between ; the Somali's length of stay in any one place being regulated by considerations of pasturage and watering. His temporary huts are made of his camel mats hung on bent poles, the haria (encamp- ment) being surrounded by a thorn zariba, thorn partitions inside making separate pens for the animals. These animals consist of camels, sheep, goats and, in Western Somaliland, cattle, besides a few ponies, but the war has greatly decreased the numbers of the latter. A Somali reckons his principal wealth in camels. At times he lives almost entirely upon camel's milk, and thinks there is nothing to be compared to camel meat, but camels are too valuable to be eaten very frequently. The Somali camel as a baggage animal is invaluable. Like every other camel, he is delicate in some ways, and therefore at times needs looking after. But he is no trouble to feed, like his often spoilt brother of Arabia, and can extract sustenance from the driest of thorns. He grumbles little, is more gentle, and. is altogether a more amiable character, if less aristo- cratic, than the Asiatic breeds. I have never seen a Somali camel try to bite a man as a vicious brute will often do in India or Arabia — and no animal can give a more ghastly bite than the " hairy scary oonty The sheep are of a fat-tailed variety, small, with black heads, and no wool. They are exported in large numbers to Aden, providing indeed practical!}^ the only meat supply for that place. Regarding the Somali himself one may hear many ■ ^^^5kRi»^ i ', :sfl A " BLOOD OF THE BER ALL OX THE MARCH. [To face p. y. MY SOMALI BOOK 9 varying opinions ; contact Avith civilisation certainly does not seem to improve him — as witness the parti- cularly objectionable type that thrives, spite of many discouragements, in Aden. Even in his own country, so far as my experience goes, those who knew him best often like him least. He is extremely avaricious ; he is vanity itself ; he does not know the meaning of gratitude ; he is the embodiment of laziness ; he is an unmitigated Har ; he is an accomplished thief ; and he is careless and casual to a degree. These are some of the indictments, and I fear there is much of truth in all of them. Is there something, I wonder, in the atmosphere of the Gulf of Aden that conduces to the growth of avarice ? Shylock was a Jew of Venice, and I have known of Indian money-lenders whose thoroughness in the art of skinning a victim was' — if thoroughness be a virtue in itself — worthy of all praise. But for sheer unadul- terated greed commend me to a Somali or a petty Arab Sheikh of the Aden Hinterland. And, while the climate of Aden has been painted in blacker lines than it really deserves, it is said with possible truth that after long residence there the white man deteriorates — in his attitude towards the root of all evil as in other things. And certainly I knew a man — but I mustn't tell tales out of Somali- land ! To return to our Somali : there is another and more pleasing side to his picture. Colonel H. G. Swayne — and few know him so well — writes : " The Somali ... is generally a good camel-man, a cheerful camp-follower, a trustworthy, loyal and attentive soldier ; proud of the confidence reposed in him, quick 10 MY SOMALI BOOK to learn new things, and wonderfully bright and in- telligent. He is untiring on the march, often a reckless hunter, and will stand b}^ his master splendidly." And again, " I have made many jmigle trips in India and elsewhere, yet in no country have I had such obedient and cheerful followers and such pleasant native companions, despite their faults, as in Somali- land." This estimate is every bit as true as the other. The Somali of the interior is not, as a rule, dishonest, though he can be an exasperating liar on occasion. And he is usualty decent in his dress. Naturally indolent, he prefers to see the women do the work, but he has plenty of energy when he chooses to give it exercise, and in this respect is seen at his best on a shooting trip. And there is no doubt of his courage. A Mahomedan of the Shafai Sect, the Somali is sometimes very particular about his religious observances, but the Arab despises him as not a true Mahomedan at all. There is no occasion to detail the principal tribes, which are split up into innumerable sub-divisions. But mention must be made of the Midgdns, an outcast tribe of professional hunters. They hunt with bow and poisoned arrow, sometimes with dogs, and are wonderful trackers. As to the provision which the country makes for the hunter : the principal game to be met with in Northern Somaliland comprises Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Lion, Leopard, Chita (hunting-leopard). MY SOMALI BOOK 11 Warthog, Ostrich, and twelve species of Antelope, to wit, Greater and Lesser Kudu, Or3^x (Beisa), Swa3aie's Hartebeest, Sommering's Gazelle (Somali-^Oi(/), Waller's Gazelle (Gerenuk), Clarke's Gazelle {Dibatag), Speke's and Pelzeln's Gazelles (both Dhero in Somali), Baira, Klipspringer {Alahlt) and Phillips' Dik-dik {Sdkdro). Two other species of dik-dik are to be found in Ogaden, the Abyssinian territory immediately south of the western Hand. Of the above the shooting of elephants, which have grown scarce, has been entirely prohibited the last few years. The rhinoceros, not uncommon in Ogaden, sometimes in the summer travels as far north as the Protectorate border, but one must not expect to find any in British territory, except perhaps in one or two localities further east which are out of the sportsman's usual beats. Among the antelopes the greater kudu affords the finest trophy, while the dibatag and baira are the rarest. The commonest species are the aoul, gerenuh, Speke's gazelle and oryx, with the little dik-dik every- where except on the open plains. The lion is no longer abundant, but is still not very uncommon in some districts, while the leopard abounds, especially in the hills. The chita is not often met with. Of animals that hardly enter into the category of game the most prominent is the Spotted Hysena (Somali- wardba), and a pest he is at times ; the smaller Striped Hysena is rarer. Two species of Jackal are common. As to small game there are several species of bustard, guinea-fowl, partridge, sand-grouse and an occasional hare. 12 MY SOMALI BOOK On my present trip I might hope to meet with any of the above game except elephant, rhino, hartebeest and haira. Further inland, in the Southern Ogaden, are to be found the Somali giraffe and Grevy's zebra, and on the banks of the Webi Shabeleh the Somali bushbuck and waterbuck and the hippopotamus : all in Abyssinian territory and considerably beyond our border or the reach of a short expedition. These introductory remarks have given the caravan a good start on its first day's journey. It is time to follow. CHAPTER II Start from Berbera — Fii'st meeting with aoul : description — Deragodleh and Lafarug — ^INIandera : lesser kudu : dik-dik — Birds : the millionaire myna : king-crow — The Somali leopard : sitting up for him : bad luck — Black- backed jackal — Greater kudu : a fine trophy — -A leopard's " kill " : no luck again — Carrion birds : crow and mongoose. It was 3 p.m. on the 15th January when Elmi and I set out across the Maritime Plain in pursuit of our caravan. Interesting at first our way was not : a flat sandy soil, dotted with low scrubby thorn bushes and apparently devoid of animal life, except for a little ground squirrel and a sand-lizard with a very sharp- pointed tail, which he carries high in the air as he scuttles away. But our faces were to the wonderful south, and the Golis Mountains, rising into the distant sky, beckoned with a promise of everything of which my last two years at an office-desk had seemed to deny the existence. We were about six miles on our road when I had my first glimpse of a dik-dik, and soon after Elmi spotted a little herd of lowland dhero (Pelzeln's gazelle), and very like they seemed to the familiar Indian chinJcara. As the range of this species hardly extends beyond the Maritime Plain, I thought I would try for a shot just to see what it felt like to stalk a buck once more. But, as I told Elmi, he was not to expect much at first, as I had not touched a rifle for three 14 MY SOMALI BOOK years. Near as it was to Berbera, the little gazelle were decidedly shy, and it took half an hour's manoeuvring before I could get within 170 or 180 yards of a nice buck. And then : the sand had been heavy and I was out of training and the rifle wouldn't stay steady ; it was a long shot, too, at a small mark in the trying evening light ; moreover, my rifle was new and untried ; and so — I am sure there were several other excuses if I could only remember them — I missed. We moved on, taking it easy ; for Brian, like his master, was somewhat out of condition, having done no work but trapping for a long time ; Elmi's mule, too, was not disposed to undue exertion. So it was getting dark when we came up with our camelry, immediately after which we halted for the night, having done about thirteen miles. It was not worth while putting up a tent for a few hours, and it was a treat to sleep under the stars again and realise that one was far, and soon to be farther, from the haunts of men. At 3 a.m. we were up, but the caravan as a whole, was, like some of its individual members, not yet in training — had not yet found itself— so the business of loading up by starlight was not accomplished with the celerity that later on came to be the rule. It was consequently 4.30 by the time we were on the move. At daylight Elmi and I left the caravan and bore off to one side. For a time the sand had ceased and our way lay among low rocky hills. We saw nothing of interest except two dliero (does) and a bustard, until near Deragodleh, our next halting-place, when. MY SOMALI BOOK 15 as Elmi had predicted, we fell in with a herd of a dozen aoiil (Sommering's gazelle). They were shy and for an hour did not give us a chance, but at length we succeeded in waylaying them as they rounded the corner of a hill only 120 yards away. I opened fire and made, one after another, three misses at the leading buck, which Elmi said was the best ; though to my eye all the horns carried by male and female alike seemed much of a muchness. It was onlv the third shot that I was able to locate as obviously high. The aoul meanwhile were still quietly walking in single file. We were down wind of them and sheltered from view, and they did not seem to hear the crack of the Mannlicher. A fourth shot aimed low was more successful, and the buck dropped, but picked himself up, hit too far back. After following a couple of hundred yards I got in another shot, behind the shoulder, and he bounded forward and fell dead. Not a very good head though heavy, but it was a beginning. The aoul is a handsome beast, about the size of the Indian blackbuck, but of stouter build, with a conspicuous white patch on the rump. The strongly annulated horns are of a very distinct type, the points curving sharply inwards towards each other. The female also has fairly long horns, but more slender and smoother, and often irregular in shape. Unlike the blackbuck, which it otherwise considerably resembles in its habits, the aoul rarely, in my experience, indulges in those wonderful high bounds so typical of the Indian species, whose every hoof would seem to carry a golf ball in its sole. Kabarah, my second shikari, hearing the shots, 16 MY SOMALI BOOK had come to meet us, and now helped to carry in the meat and horns to Deragodleh, where we arrived, to find the caravan unloading, at about 10 o'clock. A few shots at a target here confirmed the view that the Mannlicher was a trifle oversighted, and made for a better understanding between me and my weapon ; likewise satisfied Elmi that though I might be a duffer it was as yet " not proven." So far the impression Elmi had made upon me was a good one, but if our trip was to be a success it was necessary that the good impression should be in some degree mutual. No shikari can be expected to go on providing opportunities for a man who never takes advantage of them unless by accident. Four hours' rest and we were on the march again, reaching Lafarug, where we encamped, at dusk ; the day's march being 25 miles. This time I found it a mistake not putting up a tent for the night, as the dew was extremely heavy. Soon after starting next morning I got another aoul, first shot this time. Midday brought us to Mandera, a valley at the foot of the Golis. Before reaching our halting place, Elmi and I explored part of a patch of thick thorn jungle with an undergrowth of htg aloes (or rather sansevieria), in which lesser kudu were known to dwell. Kudu tracks there certainly were, fresh and stale, and presently, cautiously peering across an open glade, Elmi drew my attention to three forms partly visible under the trees on the far side some seventy yards away. I soon distinguished a young buck and a doe lesser kudu, but it was impossible to see what the third was like. So we waited two or three minutes MY SOMALI BOOK 17 and then they began to get restless and in another moment were off. No. 3, who turned out to be a buck with a fine head, offered a chance of a stern shot going away fast at a hundred yards ; but I did not think it good enough, hoping for a better opportunity which never came. I know the lesser kudu better now, he is the one of the Somali antelopes upon whom 3'OU must never count for an easier shot, but shoot on sight, if he offers a chance at all. More of him later. My camping ground at Mandera was a charming spot on the wooded bank of a sandy river-bed. Besides lesser kudu in the jungle below, there were greater kudu in the hills above, the only place where I had any chance of seeing the latter this trip. Our original idea had be^n to press on at once to the Hand and try for kudu on our way back. But I felt that, once in the Haud, the hope of a lion would tempt me to stay there to the last possible moment and leave no time for kudu on the return journey. Next to a lion a good greater kudu head was the first object of my ambition. Moreover, I wanted an African leopard, and there was a much better chance of getting one here in the hills than further on. So it was decided to stay and make Mandera our headquarters for two or three days at least. That evening I went out with a shot gun and bagged two dik-dik besides a couple of lesser bustard. The dik-dik is a quaint little beggar, with soft pretty skin and Httle toy horns two inches long. No bigger than a hare, he lies as close, then dashes off at great o 18 MY SOMALI BOOK speed ; or if he thinks himself unobserved, creeps silently away. He is never found away from cover. One did not see many animals, but here at the foot of the Golis there was bird-life in plenty. Fine feathers make fine birds. The common Indian myna is an individual for whom I have a great personal esteem ; always cheerful in spite of his scientific misnomer {Acridotheres tristis !) and eminently respectable ; he is essentially bourgeois — and dresses accordingly. At Mandera, however, I first made the acquaintance of another myna, evidently a younger brother who had left home to make his fortune ; and made it — in tinned grasshoppers or something of the sort. Having made his pile, he must dress as one who has the entry into the highest circles ; but here the erring instinct of the nouveaii riche has led him astray. He appears to have taken as his model a la-di-da young gentleman, whose blood no doubt is blue as the sea, and his brains as watery, judging from the vacuous expression with which he swaggers about in a bright blue frock-coat with flowing tails and the fanciest of fancy waistcoats. Behold then Mr. Myna Junior in a coat and collar of brilliant metallic blue, with vest and knee-breeches of brightest orange-vermilion ! He has not gone as far as the flowing tails (perhaps his wife reminded him that his figure was just a shade too corpulent) ; all the same he certainly is a fine bird : how far what is best in Somali avine society may be taken in, I had no means of discovering. But, as they say, to one who knows the species, a certain type of South African millionaire is always recognisable, whether because or in spite of the huge diamond in his shirt-front ; so to MY SOMALI BOOK 19 me this fine fellow inevitably betrayed his humble origin. Whether in his walk, his flight, his attitudes, his general behaviour, or his language, once a myna always a myna. And yet, if I only knew, he has pro- bably even dropped the old family * name, for fear of calling to mind the tinned grasshoppers that paid his tailor's bills ! I think I like old John Company Myna best. Another familiar acquaintance was the drongo — the Indian king-crow — who don't care nothing for nobody, but sits on the donkey's back encouraging that placid creature to flush its rider's insect prey as effectively as ever two-legged beater flushed quail for Master. Then a discordant scream of rage, and the glossy black plumage and long forked tail flash in the sunlight as we turn to see what has evoked the sudden outburst of wrath. Among the thicker trees vanishes the silent shape of a dark grey buzzard, and the little champion returns from his pursuit in triumph. The king-crow is a pal of mine, though his usual discordant note is the reverse of musical. They told me that Mandera was a good place for leopards : it was not long before I had evidence of the fact. A not inconsiderable acquaintance in India with the leopard (or panther as we call him there) has impressed me with a decided respect for his character and abilities, and this my meetings with his African brother have not decreased. Tracking down a light-footed beast like a leopard in the Somali hills is, from the nature of the country, a more than difflcult undertaking. It is usually, moreover, impossible to obtain a sufficiency of beaters * Acridotheres — Grasshopper-hunter, 20 MY SOMALI BOOK when wanted. Hence the marking down of one in his hiding place and driving him out, as frequently done in India, is rarely practicable. The usual recourse then is a bait at night. But there is generally no convenient tree to sit in, so the sportsman has resort to a zariba. Best a zariba occupied by a Somali encampment with their sheep and goats, for any leopard of the neighbourhood is certain to be aware of their presence, and as likely as not will come prowling round under cover of darkness in search of an oppor- tunity of annexing one of the flock. The flock one might imagine was fairly safe within the thick thorn fence, some 4J or 5 feet in height, and with several human beings sleeping alongside. But supply the leopard's activit}^ and daring with the stimulus of a little hunger, and he makes nothing of a leap over the thorn-fence into the enclosure and another leap out again, this time with a sheep. So it comes about that if a Somali haria (encampment) occupies a zariba for any length of time, a single leopard will sometimes quarter himself upon it and exact his toll with the utmost regularity two nights out of three, or even oftener. The tax would seem an unbearable one, but it is rarely that the Somali will take the trouble to try and circumvent the marauder. His whole wealth consists in his flocks, but an individual sheep costs little, and spite of his avarice the Mussulman fatalism of his nature endures the robbery, until one day he thinks of counting up the sheep he has lost, then curses all the robber's ancestral relatives and hurriedly shifts his encampment ! From this it can be understood that the Somali will probably welcome the Sahib who MY SOMALI BOOK 21 comes to slioot a leopard from his zariba ; but he will show no gratitude, and will demand an exorbitant price for a goat to be used as bait. The modus operandi consists in making a loophole in the zariba fence about two feet from the ground, tying a goat up immediately outside and waiting for the panther to come. It is not a sporting method, but being the only one usually possible, it has to my thinking a sufficient excuse in the amount of damage to stock caused by the depredations of leopards. And, as will be seen, it is not nearly so simple a business as it sounds ; which fact, with the darkness and the nature of the beast with which one has to deal, combine to provide an element of excitement that makes the affair not quite the cold-blooded butchery that it might at first appear. While if the leopard is only wounded, one may have some nervous work in following him up next morning. As to the use of a live goat as bait, I confess I have no scruples. The goat objects at first to being tied up outside the zariba, but it certainly does not, as I once heard stated by a man with no personal knowledge of the subject, spend the time in a state of terror. While if the leopard is killed, the sacrifice of one goat means the saving alive of many. On this occasion at Mandera my luck was out. I was sitting at a loop-hole in a neighbouring zariba at about 9 p.m., when suddenly the goat stiffened and tugged at its rope with the peculiar sneezing snort the goat tribe go in for when alarmed. I knew what that meant, had heard just one faint foot-fall. Next moment there was a rush, a gurgling scuffle, and the goat was gone ! The leopard's charge — he must have 22 MY SOMALI BOOK been a heavy beast — had broken the rope clean. Of course there was a hue and cry and a rush out with lanterns to try and make him drop his prey, but it was no use, he had got clear away. This was the first, but not the last, time that I was fated to be scored off b}^ a Somali leopard ! Well, we tied up another goat on the off-chance, and after an hour or so I went to sleep. At about 4 a.m. another leopard turned up and killed. I woke up, but it was a dark night, and, for half a minute or so, could make out nothing to shoot at ; then just as I was getting some idea as to the beast's position he quietly slipped away : what roused his suspicions I don't know. I waited for him till daylight, but though I heard him once he did not show up again. To have two goats killed, and two leopards within a few feet of the muzzle of one's rifle in one night without a shot was more than ordinarily bad luck. Next day I spent a long morning trying for lesser kudu. Had occasional glimpses of them but they were shy and I could not get a shot. The ground in their favourite cover was overgrown with the aloe- hke sansevieria, the fibre of which may prove of considerable commercial value, if local conditions ever permit of its satisfactory cultivation. I shot a jackal that afternoon from the tent door, one of the black-backed species. He has a handsome skin, but his singing is not in the same class with that of his Indian cousin, his serenading voice being decided}^ weak and throaty in comparison. On arrival at Mandera I had sent men out exploring the nearer hills (such of them as were not included in MY SOMALI BOOK 23 the Game Reserve, the boundary of which passed through Mandera) in search of greater kudu. On the second morning, no news having come in, Elmi advised trying a big hill beyond. Starting at daybreak, after an hour's ride, and an hour and a half's steady climb we got over the top of the big hill on to a sort of hilly plateau at an elevation of something over 5000 feet. The climb had been steep enough and hard work, but not difficult. Elmi pointed out a depression between two hills as the most likely place to hold kudu if there were any about ; so we started operations by a sort of beat here which proved blank. There were two recently arrived Somali karias close by, a fact which did not promise well for the proximity of kudu. It was now after 11 o'clock, so I sat down to wait for the tiffin-basket, then break- fast, and a rest, while two shikaris went over to another hill to prospect. They came back about 1.30 p.m., to say they had found nothing but stale tracks, so we started off in the one remaining direction that seemed of any use. We had only gone half a mile when we met a shepherd, who said he had seen a big kudu bull only a few minutes before. This was much more cheering, and we were soon on his tracks, but the ground was hard and stony, and we could not keep them for more than a short distance at a time. For an hour or more we searched for him, until at last Kabarah, my second shikari, spotted him not one hundred yards away. He was off again at once, making back towards the old feeding grounds that we had tried in the morning. Here the going was a little better, and the shikaris managed to keep on his tracks. 24 MY SOMALI BOOK and for the next two hours stuck to his trail grandly, for the tracking was frequently very difficult, and though we must often have been very close to him he was an old hand and would not show himself or stop. At last we were afraid it was no good ; it was 5.30 p.m. and the sun would set in less than half an hour, when, as we came round a corner on the side of a hill, Elmi grabbed my arm and pointed — there, about eighty yards down the hill-side, I saw the head and shoulders of the great antelope as he stood for a moment among some bushes, horns thrown back, looking up at us. It did not take five seconds to throw up the Mannlicher, aim behind the shoulder and fire. Away he crashed down the hill out of sight, but I knew I had him, and sure enough forty yards further we found him lying at his last gasp : a grand beast, as big as a large sambar stag, with a short mane and bearded throat and a really good head. The little spht buUet had found his heart. It was a great finish to a hard day's work. During the four hours we had been on his trail I had not had a glimpse of him the whole time, and but for the excellent tracking of my men should never have got him. We were three hours' journey from camp, so left Kabarah to take off the head and skin and keep them in an adjacent karia until the morning, while Elmi and I started to find our w^ay down to our steeds. I was unquestionably fortunate in obtaining a big kudu at the first attempt ; the horns measured fifty inches on the curve, and had a fine wide spread, good for Somaliland. It was my one regret that it had been too dark to photograph him as he lay. Standing MY SOMALI BOOK 25 fourteen to fifteen hands at the shoulder, his mag- nilicent spiral horns set on a graceful frame, the Greater Kudu is King among the antelopes : none of the other great African species, whether Eland or Sable, Gemsbok or Waterbuck, is quite his peer. Next dajj after another un- successful morning in the lesser kudu jungle, news came in about 3 p.m. of a goat having been killed by a leopard a couple of hours before on a hill-side three miles away. I hurried off to the spot and found that a shelter of branches had been constructed for me against the side of a rock, and the kill disposed twenty yards below on the hill- side. The chances were that the leopard would return before dark if he came at all. I was well concealed, and the arrangements were all very nice, but I did not like the kill having been moved, as had been done, some forty yards from where the leopard had left it. The skin also had been removed by the owner of the goat before my men arrived on the scene. These may or may not have been the reasons why, but the leopard failed to put in an appearance. However, I spent an interesting afternoon watching the scavengers who soon found out the kill. First, of course, came the crows — a crow like a small raven, but with a dark brown head. Then vultures of no less than six different species, the two who ruled the roost being a big bird 26 MY SOMALI BOOK with a smooth brown neck and a whitish ruff, and a great turkey-buzzard Uke the West Indian " John Crow,'' but bigger ; then there was a bright tawny- vulture with black points, as big as the other two, but with less force of character, besides three smaller kinds. A kite, darker and heavier than the Indian pariah kite, managed to collar a tit-bit and clear off with it, but was at once charged by a small light- coloured eagle — you should have heard the whack ! as they met in mid-air ; the kite was knocked endways, but clung manfully to his prize, and, recovering himself, dodged a second swoop and got clear away. As sunset approached the vultures disappeared, and only a couple of crows remained. Then a mongoose appeared round a corner and went for one of the crows, who beat a retreat, but immediately returned to the attack and regained possession. This happened half a dozen times, the crow evidently having as wholesome a respect for the mongoose's sharp teeth as the latter had for his powerful bill. The mongoose was a hand- some fellow, grayer and darker than the common Indian species, with a black tip to his tail and a black nose instead of ajpink one. . . CO '•^ . -^*^V." - - v^-. . ^Jf CHAPTER III Across the Golis Range — Adadleli — Chita — Speke's gazelle — Bull oryx wounded and lost — -Description of oryx heisa — A jungle interlude — " Bounders " among beasts — The spotted hysena : his character and habits — Description of geremdc — Tuj^o Plain — " Somajesti.''' Having attained the main object of our stay at Mandera, we pushed on towards the Haud, crossing the Gohs Range by the Jerato Pass, a fairly stiff climb for the camels. The fresh tracks of a pair of greater kudu bulls from the Reserve crossed our path, but we had no time to give to them, especially as the single specimen, which was all my license permitted, had been already bagged. At midday we halted at Adadleh, where deep wells provide a permanent watering-place. Further on we could expect to find no water at this time of year, so hired six extra camels and laid in a supply of as much water as we could carry. There were three Habr Yunis karias there at the time with herds of two or three thousand camels. I also met there Elmi's brother, Kaalila Hirsi, in his day a famous shikari, but now an ahil (head man) of his tribe (Habr Awal Makahil) and one of the finest looking Somalis I have seen. That afternoon's march was through a country devoid of game — the nearest approach to such being some courier-plover, of which I shot a couple for the pot. But just before sunset, in open bush country, 28 MY SOMALI BOOK Elmi suddenly stopped, exclaiming " Jippat!^'' I could not think what on earth he meant until he used the Somali word, " sliabel,'''' when I realised that his first effort was intended for " leopard." I spotted the beast just too late as it moved away among the bushes. Running to cut it off I saw, as I concluded, the same animal stand looking back eighty to one hundred yards away. I took a steady kneeling shot and heard the bullet tell, but apparently it sprang away, going as if unhurt, though in no great hurry. I followed, thinking its gait was not quite like that of an ordinary leopard, but I could not get a full view, and it quickly dis- appeared. Just then a shout came from behind : " margaya ! " (dead !). Then it dawned on me that there had been two beasts, and I turned back to find I had bagged, not an ordinary leopard, but a small chita about three-quarters grown. Owing to its standing higher than a leopard of the same age, and being partially concealed by grass, it had seemed bigger, while the greyish ground-colour of the pretty skin had not yet attained the reddish tinge of the adult chita. The other, which Elmi had seen first, must have been the mother. It was bad luck my not having seen her in time to appreciate the situation. There is little real likeness between chita and leopard, and they should never be confused if seen clearly. The small round head ; the longer limbs ; the tucked-up appearance of the hind-quarters, built for speed ; the only partially retractile claws ; absence of a rosette pattern in the arrangement of the spots ; the short mane ; these comprise the principal points •t V ■) (ii:i:i:M'K. ORTX JIEiSA. [To face p. 29. MY SOMALI BOOK 29 in which the chita differs in appearance from his bolder and fiercer cousin. It was very cold in camp that night, likewise when loading up again at dawn, which was hardly surprising seeing that the month w^as January and our elevation was over 4000 feet. Continuing our southward way I shot my first clhero, of the plateau variety {Gazella Spekei), after a long stalk. This handsome little gazelle is very like the Indian cJiinhara in habits and appearance. He differs mainly in the darker median band, the different face-markings which show more black and white, and the possession above the nose of a peculiar patch of loose skin, wiiich is often inflated, forming a quaint protuberance. The horns are much like the Indian gazelle's, but, on the average, shorter, at least in the buck. And, like the chinJcara again, the little black tail is never still. T\yiiikle, twinkle, little tail. Does your ardour never fail ? How I wonder why you may Never rest the Uve-long day ! The day's march of 27 miles ended at a zariba in the thick khansa (umbrella thorn) jungle, south of a place called Dafaroo. Here we found Kabarah, who had been sent on ahead prospecting. He reported khabar of leopard, oryx, and lesser kudu. We had had glimpses of oryx and gercnuk on the road shortly before halting, and, on the whole, thought^ it might be worth while staying at this spot for a day. Out in the morning early, Ave found numerous tracks of oryx ('' arragis,'' as Elmi j)ronounced it), and 30 MY SOMALI BOOK after an hour came upon a herd. They were wary creatures, and though where the jungle was thick we could get fairly close to them, it was difficult to get a satisfactorj^ oi)portunity, for I did not want to shoot f until fairly certain. However, when I at length got in a shot at one which Elmi said was a bull — I could not tell the difference — at about 120 yards, it was rather a snap, and I was not at all sure as to where I had hit him. The herd dashed off : the wounded bull taking a line of his own. It then became a question of whether he was badty enough hit to allow us to come up with him. For two miles there was a certain amount of blood on the tracks, and we had two glimpses of him, but he kept on steadily down wind so always knew when we were approaching, and it was never open enough to afford a chance of a long shot. After about MY SOMALI BOOK 31 three hours he got on to harder ground where tracking was very difficult, and I regretfully gave it up as a bad job, with the hope that, being a vegetarian, he would soon recover from the effects of a wound which 1 imagine was not a very serious one. I made an error in the first instance in following him up at once instead of giving him half an hour's law. The beisa oryx (Somali ha' id) is an animal of striking appearance with the contrasted black and white of its face markings and its long, slender, slightly curving horns which are annulated half way up from the base, but — pace the fair authoress of Two Dianas in Somaliland — not spirally. It stands comparatively low for its size (12 J hands at the shoulder), for it is a heavy antelope ; when alarmed it goes off at a lumber- ing bovine gallop, which is far from graceful, but would tax the paces of a good horse to keep up with : I believe, however, that its staying power is not great, and that in open country it can be ridden to a stand- still. At first sight the slenderness of the beisa's horns does not appear to be in keeping with its powerful build, but the combination grows upon one until it becomes difficult to imagine anything more suitable. Effective weapons these horns are too, and the owner does not lack the courage to use them to good purpose when cornered ; a wounded individual therefore needs to be approached with care. This protection, however, does not avail to save the oryx from being the favourite prey of the lion in the Haud, though when the latter is discovered in time I believe a herd of oryx with young not infrequently succeed in beating him off. 32 MY SOMALI BOOK Back in camp at 2 p.m., tired and disappointed. I put in the latter part of the afternoon in more restful fashion, sitting in a tree at the edge of the thick bush, where the leopard of which we had heard was supposed to dwell ; a goat being tethered to a stump twenty yards away. Nothing happened for an hour or so ; then about half an hour before sunset some fifteen or twenty crows suddenly appeared from nowhere, and began flying round my tree and the goat, cawing uproarious^ and making a great to-do. I fancy my thoughts had been elsewhere, as with something of a start I turned my attention to the business in hand, realising that the corbies' behaviour might mean that the enemy was on the move. Presently the cause (presumabl}^) of all the com- motion appeared in the shape of a black-backed jackal, who sat down on his haunches about thirty yards away from the goat, looking at her. At least he sat in the open facing the goat, but you would have thought that she was the last subject to have any interest for him. First he looked to one side and then to another, and perhaps gave his moustache a twirl as he cast a glance, a very casual glance, across the way. Then one of the crows made a swoop at him, to which he replied with just a shadow of a snarl, as who should flick his handkerchief and say, " Bother those flies ! " One knew all the time that he wanted to come out with a big swear-word, but was not sure whether bad language was quite the thing just now in really good society. For it was clear that he desired to make a good impression, and he was certainly smartly dressed MY SOMALI BOOK 33 and very spick and span ; the idea no doubt being to fascinate Mistress Nannie alike by his elegance and by his indifference to her charms. The lady's attitude, however, is, and continues to be, one of disdain, tempered by suspicion ; till at last Master Jack, finding it slow (or getting hungry !) gets up and strolls, still in the most genteel fashion, toward her. But his advances are received in the most chilling manner as he walks round her, saying in a deprecatory sort of way, " Why so stand-offish to an old pal ? " Nannie makes no pretensions to be anything but of the masses, who have not yet learned that language is intended for the concealment of thought, and whose modes of expression are vigorous. She keeps him at horn's length : " Garn ! think I don't know yer ? You dirty, mean, skulking son of a crab-eater ! " Our jackal, living a hundred miles from the coast, has never seen a crab in his life, but he does not like being reminded of the family taste for such things, which is considered low. So he promptly loses his temper and makes a vicious snap at the goat's hind leg, the veneer of gentilit}^ vanishing at once. The goat twists nimbly round, keeping her horns, such as they are, towards him, and only says, " Think I'm afraid of you ? You just hook it ! " At this Jack puts on his deprecating air again : " What's the matter with you to-day, my dear ? as if you didn't know I was only playing." " Don't you, ' my dear ' me, you— you — crabby ! " This is a little too much, and the reply is another savage snap which nearly gets home. But now poor Nannie is beginning to lose her self-confidence, and the tone of her " Yah 1 34 MY SOMALI BOOK Coward ! " rises to something very like a scream for help. It seemed about time for Master to interfere, so I threw a cartridge at the little bounder and shook my rifle at him as he looked up. This caught his eye and he sheered off. I am afraid the jackal is a "bounder," and a sneak- ing, cowardly one. The leopard and hysena are bounders too. But the former, while a true cat and therefore of necessit}^ a sneak, combines with caimy caution a cool audacity that is unrivalled, and a brilliant, if ferocious, courage in fight. The hyaena, though he can, on occasion, be wonderfully silent in his movements, has not the habitual stealthiness of the leopard nor even of the jackal ; he is therefore, in that sense only, less of a sneak, and when he does attack is usually fairly open in his methods. But he is a black coward — fortunately, for his immense power of jaw is such as to make him, if he only realised it, a most formidable foe to both man and beast. Calling the jackal names seems to have led me into a dissertation on hyaenas which I had not intended just here. However, these beasts are ubiquitous in Somali- land and may just as well be dealt with now as later, premising that mj^ remarks refer more especially to the waraba of the Somalis, the Spotted Hysena. Coward though he ordinarily is, this animal is by no means lacking in audacity on occasion ; and the estimates of his character by some writers which put him down as too cowardly to be in any way dangerous, and con- demned to live entirely on offal because he dare not attack a living prey, are singularly wide of the mark, at any rate in Somaliland MY SOMALI BOOK 35 Camera Adventures in the African Wilds is a fascinating and remarkable book, but its author's remarks that the hyaena " probably never attacks any wild creature unless it be wounded," and again, that it " will almost starve rather than attack a living creature," are based on insufficient knowledge of the animal in question. It is certainly probable that the hysena is rarety successful in an attack on any of the wary and agile antelope tribe, not because he is afraid to attack a gazelle, but because he can't catch it — lacking as he does either the stalking abilities of the big cats or the running powers of the hunting dog. But there can be no doubt that he occasionally surprises young- animals of various species ; and I once found the remains of a fox which the signs clearly showed had been ambushed and killed by a ivaraba. But with domestic animals, which it is not beyond his power to seize, it is quite another matter. The Somali's herd of goats and sheep are continually being attacked by hyaenas in the daytime, and if the prey is comparatively seldom carried away it is because the hyaena's methods are clumsy and slow compared with the leopard's, so that he is often driven off before the robbery can be made good. The number of sheep and goats killed by hyaenas, though not comparable with the slaughter by leopards, is still far from in- considerable. Nor do cattle escape ; the loaraba not infrequently attacks and kills the small Somali cows, his method usually being to tear out their udders in the most cruel fashion. Similar and successful attacks even on straying 36 MY SOMALI BOOK camels are not unknown. The low-down character of the brute is manifest still more in his habit of taking a meal by snatches from an animal which he is unable or afraid to kill. Drake-Brockman {Mammals of Somaliland) states, " They will often attack horses, biting great pieces out of their hind- quarters." And even human beings sleeping out in the open are liable to be treated in similar fashion : I have seen several Somali faces disfigured in ghastly fashion by the passing bite of a hyaena ; and small children are some- times carried off. In fact, if he had the courage of his opinion, that mankind, like any other creature, is meat, I have no doubt that his man-eating proclivities would be far more notorious than the casual evil- doings of lion or tiger. My personal experiences of the waraba will be set down in due course ; I have said enough here to show that while essentially a coward he is vermin of a dangerous and destructive type, and should be shot at sight, without any scruple on account of the good his scavenging propensities may do. Somaliland is not lacking in other scavengers, furred and feathered. The smaller striped hyaena (Somali didhar) is much less abundant, though probably commoner than is often supposed, as it is shyer and less given to prowling round zaribas, and therefore less in evidence. It is identical with the Indian species, but appears to be decidedly more aggressive here than in India. My shikari told me that it occasionally develops a pleasing habit of running amok amongst a herd of sheep or goats, killing a dozen or more from sheer lust of slaughter. 1 hardly credited this story at the time. MY SOMALI BOOK 37 but have since found it corroborated by Drake-Brock- man, who says it is always an old animal that acts in this fashion, and is then given by the Somalis the distinctive name of Whera. Moving on next morning the bush soon became more open and I had a shot at a geremik buck, which was unsuccessful, but he gave me another chance at 150 yards, and I dropped him with a bullet in the throat. I had had glimpses of this species before, but this was the first time I was able to see what it was really like. The gerenuk {Lithocrcmius Walleri) is an animal deserving of special notice. Reckoned among the gazelles, it is very distinct from any of them, noticeably in respect of the extraordinary length of neck which enables it, standing on its hind legs, to browse off foliage six feet or more from the ground. Hence the name, occasionally given it, of " giraffe-gazelle." Though sometimes found in fairly open country the gerenuk is more of a bush lover than the typical gazelles, from whom it differs further in that the females possess no horns. And its invariable gait when alarmed, a trot with long neck extended horizontally 38 MY SOMALI BOOK to the front, tail down and head low, is far from elegant, and very unlike the graceful bounds of the dhero. One of the commonest antelopes of Somaliland, though never found in large herds, it is generally looked upon as one of the most difficult to shoot. The buck's horns are not long and are difficult to make out as he stands staring at you with head thrown back, usually against a bad background of trees or bush, and by the time you have made u^^ your mind that his head is worth having he has moved on. If he stands again, it is behind a bush, or else there is much the same difficulty of picking him out from the family which almost always accompanies him. If you can decide as to the quality of the buck's head when you first sight him well and good ; but many's the gerenuh that I have followed and never fired at. On the other hand, geremih, when alarmed, have a habit of trotting in a circle instead of going right away, and, as antelopes go, are, I think, decidedly stupid, so that sometimes approaching them is the simplest thing possible. The horns of the buck are very massive for the size of the animal, and in proportion to their length ; and very distinctive in form, sloping back from the skull, on which they are set far forward, and at the tip curving forward into a pronounced hook, deeply corrugated at the base. The coat is a handsome one, the general colour being a sort of dark chestnut, with a slightly grizzled effect at close quarters, due apparently to the hairs being light in colour on their under side. Presently we reached the Tuyo Plain, about 25 miles MY SOMALI BOOK 39 wide, bare of anything but grass, which at this season of the year was short and scanty. It seemed, however, to provide sustenance for several herds of aoul, one of which I shot. We wanted to get across the Plain before dark, which meant a long march, so our midday halt lasted only 2 J hours. Soon after starting again we came across an animal which looked rather like a big jackal and ran to ground in a fox-like earth, I could not then imagine what it might be. Elmi called it Somajesti. At length, at sunset, having covered about 30 miles, we reached the fringe of open bush that marked the commencement of the Hand, and encamped in a zariba that lay handy. On the edge of the Plain I wounded and, I am sorry to say, lost an aoul, Brian was too fagged for the burst of speed needed to ride the buck down before he reached the cover of the bush. A search next morning showed that the hysenas had got him. CHAPTER IV The Hand— Otocijon — Midgan hunters — How to attract Uons— My first dibatag— On the tracks of the King of Beasts : first sight of him— Blank days — Another long day after a Hon : again but a ghmpse — ^The Somali's bump of locality — Lose a donkey in an unusual way — Description of dibatag — Bad shooting — My first oryx — Northward again — ^^Vhy I had no luck with lions. We were in the Haud at last ; to me the land of promise, with the grand skin I had seen at Berbera in my mind's eye, all the more that we passed next day H.'s old zariba and saw there, still distinguishable, the bare patch of ground on which the troph}^ had been pegged out to dry. This day we sent off four camels to Odweina, a post 40 miles to the north-east, for a fresh supply of water, in which one had to be decided^ economical. A bath was a luxury rarely to be afforded, and one had to be content with a sponge-down. A day's march over a dry country, varying from thorn jungle interspersed with patches of high durr grass to fairly open ground, brought us in the evening to a zariba at Libah Gutair, where it seemed worth while to stay for a day or two and investigate the neighbourhood. Two harias moving north for water had reported lions about. Shortly before reaching camp, after seeing a herd of thirty or forty oryx, which took no chances with suspicious characters like us, we came across a couple ■me^ tf' ■■>. ■\.m.y^Litt>>i. 'Vikis^. 'te^f--> rv..^.->V^^ ORVX ASLYUS.* j;a(;i,i; in riii: iiaid To face p. 41. * The jNIidgaiis decoy the oryx with a donkey painted like an oryx and furuislied witli horns, as iD above photo. MY SOMALI BOOK 41 of animals that were new to me. I managed to hit one with a snap-shot, as he bolted from a bush 30 yards awa}^ He was like a small fox, short in the leg, and with ears a size too large. General colour a dark greenish grey, with quite a good brush. I noticed that he seemed to run on his toes, as the claws formed the most distinctive part of his spoor ; the claws themselves being decidedly weak and slender for a fox. This handsome little animal turned out to be the Long-eared Fox {otocyon megalotis). The Somali name is goleli ivardba, which Drake-Brockman in his book translates into " possessor of a neck like a hyaena." In a letter to the Field, however, the same authority has given the meaning as having a flank like a hysena, which is more in accordance with what a Somali told me. Personally I failed to see the resemblance. The one I shot yapped like a fox when hit, and I have heard a fox-like bark at night that I put down to this species, as I know of no other fox in Somaliland south of the Golis. No Jchahar (news) next morning, so I went out in the afternoon after oryx. After following a small herd for a mile, I hit one, hard I thought, at 200 yards ; but he made off and after a scanty blood-trail had failed, his spoor became hopelessly mixed up with other fresh tracks and we failed to find him again, which annoyed me considerably. Later we met two Midgtins who had been hunting with equal unsuccess. These people hunt the oryx with dogs, the former when overtaken turning at bay to defy their enemies, when the Midgan seizes the opportunity of creeping up and letting fly his deadly 42 MY SOMALI BOOK little poisoned arrows. I got them to join forces with me, as I was anxious to see their methods ; but though we found another herd of oryx, the dogs were tired or not keen for some reason or other, and were but half- hearted in their efforts, and we returned to camp empty-handed. The following day we moved ten miles further on, seeing for the first time a lion's tracks a day or two W^\^^^^w(^'^l ^ y-^-y. /T' old, which cheer ed me up, for I was beginning to wonder if lions were a myth. Elmi's method was to send out at daylight eight men in couples in four different directions to search for the fresh tracks of any lions that might have been in the neighbourhood during the night. I had to remain in camp in the mornings ready to start out if news came in from any of the trackers. These were usually back in camp by about eleven or twelve o'clock. If they had had no luck I used to go out in the after- noon after antelope. Then at night a donkey was tied up outside a loophole, in case of a nocturnal visit. And as such a visit was to be desired it became advisable MY SOMALI BOOK 43 to send out an invitation to any lion there might be within reasonable distance. One reads in books of African travel of fires being lighted at night to keep off wild beasts. We went on a different principle, and used to light at sunset a bonfire to attract the lions. The lion seeing the smoke or scenting the fire in the distance pricks up his ears and thinks to himself, " That means menfolk and an encampment which signifies animals, camels, sheep, etc. ; which, again, means meat ! Nearly a week since I have had a decent dinner, that is obviously the place for me ! " Anyway that is how he ought to reason if he does not— to your stay-at-home naturalist I suppose it is heresy to use the word " reason " in connection with a dumb beast ! To supplement the effect of the bonfire, Elmi would go out at dusk and lift up his voice : " Lion ! oh. Lion ! Great Lion ! where art thou ? The feast is spread for thy Greatness ! " Next morning they told me that a lion had been heard roaring in the distance to the eastward at about 2 a.m., so we started early to try and hit off his trail. By 8.30 a.m. we had failed to find it and Elmi was not hopeful, when we suddenly came across a dihatag buck. Now the dihatag {Ammodorcas Clarhei) is an antelope that is found only in the Haud, and is dis- tinctly a prize. It has, moreover, the reputation of being shy and difficult to shoot. So I declined to let the chance go as the buck was standing broadside on looking at me. Not an easy shot, as he was 200 yards away, and owing to the long grass I had to take the shot standing. He gave a bound into the air as I heard the bullet tell, and disappeared. I had dropped 44 MY SOMALI BOOK my foresight a trifle and hit him low, so we had to follow him up and might have been a long time before bringing him to bay, as an antelope wounded in the stomach will travel far if not pressed to full speed, but for some unexpected assistance. This was afforded by a jackal, whose quick nose had detected the blood taint as the wounded buck passed the grass where he lay, and who took up the chase in front of us ! He soon became aware of our proximity and retired, but he had forced the dihatag to a sprint by which it was quickly exhausted, and I soon had an opportunity of bringing it down. I shall describe the dihatag later, enough for the present that this was a good head and T was very pleased. While this buck was being skinned a messenger turned up with news of fresh lion tracks on the far side of camp. We at once made our way back, had a hurried breakfast and started out again. It was then 11.30 a.m. and it took us an hour to get on to the trail. There was a pair, lion and lioness, but after a time they separated and we followed the male. It was exciting work, as the bush was decidedl}^ thick in places. We progressed at an average rate of 2| miles an hour, which on that ground was good track- ing, and at about three o'clock Elmi caught a glimpse of him on the move and the next moment I saw him trot across an open space a hundred yards ahead. He looked a big fellow, with a fine dark mane, but I had no chance of a shot and we never got a sight of him again. He had had his morning's sleep and it was not hot, so he saw no reason to wait for us, and it was not open enough to try and ride him down. We MY SOMALI BOOK 45 followed him until nearly dark and then had to give up. It was bad luck that what was probably a different lion's roar in the night had taken me out in the morning and made me so late in getting on his trail : if we could have come up with him before he had had his sleep out and while the sun was high we should probably have had him. However, it was something to have had even that glimpse of the King of Beasts in his native wilds and I still hoped for a closer acquaintance. The next two days were blank except for the shooting of a doe gerenuk by mistake one evening? when I could not distinguish the buck's head in the dusk and was in want of meat. That did not interest the Somalis who, as a rule, will not eat the flesh of the gerenuk. It is difficult to understand why ; but so far as I can make out, the gerenuk, with long neck browsing on the thorn-trees and a somewhat camel- like profile, has for them associations with the camel on which their dependence is so great ; hence a vague idea that to eat its flesh might bring ill-luck upon their camel herds. Not that they have any objection to eating the camel itself when they can afford it ; very much the contrary, I have however heard of a different and rather fantastic reason in an alleged resemblance of certam physical functions in the gerenuk to the human kind. A runner turned up from Berbera with welcome mails, and letters and writing up my journal helped to pass the long hours of the morning in camp waiting for khabar that did not come. In the evenings, the air was full of the call of a 46 MY SOMALI BOOK lesser bustard that was abundant in the Haud ; a plaintive single note rather like the cheep of a turkey chick. This species was rather larger than the one I had found at Mandera and, unlike the latter, had a black breast. Followed another strenuous though unsuccessful day. The tracks of a lion and lioness appeared in the morning just outside our zariba, and we found that one of them had lain down during the night onl}^ a few feet from the fence, but on the opposite side from that where the donkej^ was tied uj). They had not made a circuit of the zariba as they often do, and apparently had not seen him. We took up the trail at 6.30 a.m. and, as before, the lion soon separated from his mate. For eight hours we followed him without success. My luck was out in two respects. To begin with, the lion would in the ordinary course have lain up in a shady spot before the sun began to get hot and we should, with any luck, have come up with him by midday at latest. But unfortunately it was a cloudy, cool da}^, with practically no sun at all until after one o'clock ; so the lion, who had not dined, had kept on ; and we had to keep on too. He probably would not have gone so far, cool as it was, except that he remembered (as it turned out) a place where he had killed an oryx three or four days earlier, and thought he might as well go on and see if there were any fragments from that meal remaining. About 2 p.m. we came upon the signs of the tragedy ; also unfortunately found that two lions had visited the spot the day before, there were consequently quite a number of lions' *' pugs " fresh and stale about the spot. MY SOMALI BOOK 47 The result was a check of nearl}^ half an hour before the shikaris had disentangled the puzzle and taken up our friend's tracks going away from the place. Herein lay the second piece of bad luck. As soon as our lion had satisfied himself that there were no scraps left he had betaken himself to the nearest shady thorn-tree to put in a late siesta, as there was no point in going any further. The tree he chose, as fate would have it, was only some eighty yards away from where our tracking had been checked at the scene of the old " kill." If we had been able to go straight on we should probably have come upon him before he was awake, but during twenty minutes or so of moving about, and, inevitably, a certain amount of talking close to him, he no doubt became restless, half awake, and then heard us. So when we found the tree growing out of an ant-hill beneath which he had been sleeping, he had moved, now on the look-out for us as he had not been before. That he had only awaked just in time was proved by the fact that we caught a glimpse of him only five minutes later — a tawny mane this time. But he was on the alert, and it was not hot enough to make him lazy, so that at 4 p.m., when he was clearlv on the run, we left him and started back to camp where we arrived soon after seven, having walked about twent3^-two miles and ridden fifteen. Never Avas mulligatawny soup so comforting ! I had only eaten three biscuits since cliota Jiazri of poached eggs and cocoa at 6 a.m. I don't think there is any- thing to beat mulligatawny after a long day of this sort, a fact which the faithful John duly kept in mind. The wonderful " bump of locality," as distinguished 48 MY SOMALI BOOK from a mere " eye for country," which unciviUsed man so often, though not always, seems to possess — m common with the domestic cat — has always been a marvel to me, but I have never seen it so developed as among these Somalis. The Haud, for instance, is absolutely flat and only varies according as long grass or thorn bushes predominate, stretching for miles and miles in every direction without any sort of dis- tinguishing landmark whatever. Yet on this occasion when we had tramped more than twenty miles, in any- thing but a straight line, after that tireless brute of a lion, and I asked where our camp was, Elmi pointed without hesitation ; he was not quite sure about the distance, guessing sixteen miles (it proved to be about thirteen), but he had no doubt whatever as to the direction and led straight back on to our zariba, which was perhaps thirty or forty yards in diameter. When I say he guessed sixteen miles, I mean that he said five hours ; they reckon distance, like the Arabs, by time, the calculation I found being based on a marching pace of about three miles an hour, or a shade more. When, however, as sometimes occurs, a Somali's estimate has no apparent basis whatever, this method is apt to be exasperating to our ridiculous European desire for comparative accuracy. The following night I lost one of my two donkeys in an unexpected fashion. One was tethered as usual just outside the zariba, the other and a sheep were tied up at likely spots a couple of miles away ; in the case of the latter animal, with a man in a tree above to scare off hyaenas. This precaution did not seem to be necessary in the case of the donkey, not knowing MY SOMALI BOOK 49 the luaraba then as well as I do now ; so I was corre- spondingly disgnsted in the morning to find the poor beast had been killed and devoured by hyaenas, having apparently been attacked by three at once. Elmi said he had never known of such a case before, and Drake-Brockman says these brutes seem to have a great respect for the donkey and he has never known them attack one. Mr. Selous, however, has mentioned similar cases. Another change of camp. This was our furthest point, about 160 miles from the coast. Here I saw in ground which had been marshy in the rainy season, the dry imprints of the feet of a rhinoceros which had been there some months before. The move brought no change of luck and the time had come to turn our steps to the north again. I got another gerenfik and two more dibatag however, both standing shots again, as the long diirr grass, whose neighbourhood they are fond of, effectually prevents one from getting down on the knee or sitting, as I like to do where possible. The dibatag's description, which I have omitted, may as well go in here. Having some affinities with the gerenuk, the dibatag is yet a distinct type, con- stituting a genus by itself. Smaller than the gerenuk it nevertheless stands high for a gazelle and has a long neck, like the former species browsing on the acacias and rarely, if ever, grazing. The buck alone has horns which, though small (ten inches is good), are handsome, curving forward in the reed-buck style. The coat is an uncommon colour, pretty purplish-grey, with the face markings a handsome red-brown. A E 50 MY SOMALI BOOK preserved skin after a time loses much of the erev effect, becoming decidedly browner. Except that it is far more local in its distribution, the dibatag affects much the same sort of country as the gerenuh, avoiding the open plain or very thick bush. Its habits too are similar ; but unlike the gerenuFs shame-faced gait, the dibaiag trots away with his head well up and a jaunty carriage, a bizarre effect being afforded by the comparatively long tail which it carries up in the air, often curving over its back as if to meet the head. Slenderly built, it is altogether an elegant little creature. ^^i^jf ■— .^s Back to Libah Gutair, where we stayed one day, and I expended a good many cartridges. I had a shot at a gerenuh with a fine head, facing me at about 150 yards, and missed him ; then sat down and made a misfire. Fired again, missed ! The buck tossed his head and came about ten paces nearer to investigate. I had two more steady sitting shots and missed again — the gerenuh still interested. Before I could reload and miss him for the fifth time, however, he remem- bered an engagement elsewhere and, with a wave of his tail as he tucked it safely away between his legs, said Ta ! Ta ! I looked at Elmi. Elmi said, " Never MY SOMALI BOOK 51 mind. Sahib." I did mind. For it was so flaorant. "O" I was a fairly good shot once and had been flattering myself that I had recovered my form. And what made it worse was that I did not know why I had missed, for I had not misjudged the distance and my hand had seemed steady enough. However, there was a measure of consolation in store. After following without success an oryx which twice stood behind a bush out of sight and snorted after the fashion of its kind as it dashed off, we were on our way back to camp when suddenly another bull oryx started up from under the shade of a tree and stood watching us only eighty or ninety yards away, thinking himself hidden, as he nearly was, by a clump of grass. I aimed where I judged his shoulder to be and heard the bullet tell on his tough hide as he spun round in a cloud of dust and disappeared. He stopped after going 150 yards or so, and I knew he must be very sick ; I hit him again and he plunged away ; a third shot high up as he galloped brought him to his knees, but he was up again at once, and it was only to a fourth bullet in the neck that he finally succumbed. A game beast and as tough as any animal I have hunted. It was satisfactory to have got an oryx at last ; this one had an average head with 29-inch horns : Oryx beisa does not grow such long horns as its southern relative, the gemsbok. I noted with interest the thickness of the hide of the neck and withers, which is in great demand among the Somalis for the making of shields. Marching back to the edge of the Haud we crossed the tracks, a day old, of a big lion, but could not stop 52 MY SOMALI BOOK to think about him. My visit had been unfortunately timed. When we reached the Hand the last of several harias that had been pasturing there since the winter rains was departing ; with their disappearance the lions that had been harrying them had scattered. Moreover, a lion rarely attacks a zariba when the moon is bright as it had been more or less during our time (only ten days after all) in the Hand. And now with Tuyo Plain in sight again I realised that for this trip my chances of a lion were gone. Better luck next time ! For that there must be a next time I had already made up my mind. CHAPTER V Tuyo again — Secretary birds — Shooting aotd on the Plain : a grand gallop — Erratic shooting : the explanation — -Two good heads — The Kliansa bush : a leopard's " kill " — Bag a small leopard — Leopard and hyaenas — A long day : the elusive lesser kudu — The Jerato Pass : alaht'it : an unintentional crime — Mandera again : meet H. — Shoot a lesser kudu at last — A good gerenuk — Pelzeln's gazelle — Back in Berbera — The end of the trip. Crossing the Tuyo Plain once more I again saw the unknown So7najesti. He was standing looking at mc not more than seventy or eighty yards away and I might have shot him easily enough, but thought he was a jackal until I put the glasses on him. Then I was struck by the resemblance of the head to that of a striped hysena and the black markings on a pale tawny coat like no jackal that exists. As soon as I exchanged binocular for rifle of course he bolted, and reached his earth untouched by my snap-shot. I came to the conclusion that he might be an aard-wolf, an animal of whose existence so far north as Somali- land I had not been aware. New to me also were a pair of birds I saw just afterwards which looked like giant silver pheasants feeding. When one stood upright, however, it altered his appearance considerably. He was white or pale grey above and black below, with a crest on his head and apparently an aquiline beak. When flying he looked not unlike a black and white stork without the long bill. I put them down as Secretary Birds. 54 MY SOMALI BOOK I wanted a really good aoiil head, but there were none visible until we were two-thirds of the way across the Plain, when we spied a scattered herd away to the west. I got up to within 250 yards, which was as near as they would allow on the flat open plain. Putting up the 300 yards sight, as I did not want to wound low, I fired and hit the selected buck. He did not fall and to my surprise the glasses showed him to be wounded a trifle far back and low. A second shot was a miss. By this time the aoul had all run together and the wounded buck among them. I followed, trying to single him out and at last thought I marked him and fired, scoring a hit but again not a good one, the buck going off on three legs. I decided to try and ride him down, so mounted and started to gallop, ordering Elmi to follow with the mule. The wounded one got in among the herd and I rode straight at them. For a mile and a half it was a grand gallop, Brian going better than I ever thought he could do. The aoul, about 150 in number, ran close together in a regular phalanx ; a charge of shrapnel into the crowd would have bagged dozens. I expected to see them go right away as blackbuck do if they are not playing with you, but to my astonishment I quickly got up to within tw^enty or thirty yards of the herd and stayed there, though they were unquestionably in a fright and seemed to be going their hardest. Possibly they crowded each other somewhat, but even so, the aoul must be considerably inferior to most of the gazelles in speed. I could not spot the wounded buck at first as he MY SOMALI BOOK 55 kept on gamely on his three legs, but at length he fell out to one side and lay down. It was wonderful how he had stood the pace so long. I dismounted and gave him the cou2>de-grdce, then waited for Elmi to come up with the mule. When he arrived I thought I would photograph him skinning the buck and went to take my kodak from the saddle. But Brian suddenly broke away and strolled off, the mule after him, and stop they would not. As I followed I noticed three aotcl, that had not gone off with the main herd, standing watching not far off. One of them struck me as having a particularly good head, so I left the steeds to their own devices and presently had a shot at the big buck. Miss again ! a second shot was a misfire, which did not improve matters ; the buck moved on a bit but soon stood again. Once more I got to within 200 — perhaps 170 yards — sat down and took a steady " pot shot " behind the shoulder with my usual sighting, taking particular care that the sights were upright, as I thought I might possibly have sinned in that respect before. I saw the bullet strike the ground some four feet short and a little to the right of his hind legs I I had begun to suspect that the hand and eye behind the gun were not altogether to blame for my erratic shooting : that shot to my mind proved it conclusivel}^ I put in a cartridge from a fresh clip, fired again with the same aim and sighting as before, and the buck bounded forward and fell on his head, shot through the heart. Why ? I'd have sworn the previous shot was equally steady and the aim as accurate. It seemed obvious that there was something wrong with some of the cartridges. 56 MY SOMALI BOOK They say a bad workman blames his tools, but there is no gainsaying the fact that tools occasionally do go wrong ! And the worst workman is he who fails to recognise the fact when it occurs. It was significant that two or three misfires I had had, all happened at times when the bullets were not going straight ; which looked as if an individual clip of cartridges here and there had gone wrong, and this is what one might expect if the ammunition had been for too long exposed to a hot climate. Subsequently I found out that these cartridges, which I had obtained from a firm in Calcutta, so far from being fresh, had been in that place for two hot seasons. This being so, it was almost a foregone conclusion that some of the cartridges, loaded with a smokeless explosive, should have been adversely affected by the heat. Q. E. D. Moral, always get your ammunition out fresh from Home if possible. To go back to our second aoid. He was dead enough this time and proved to have an exceptionally tine head, horns symmetrical and measuring 19| inches. The other was also a very good head, just under 18. It is worthy of note that the horns of aoul here and south of the Golis generally, while decidedly longer, are in my experience more slender and lighter than those found in Guban. What became of the buck first wounded I do not know, but suppose he nmst have slipped out of the herd on the far side and lain down unobserved when I started riding. I searched the plain with the glasses but could find no trace of him. Meanwhile Brian and the mule were continuing their evening stroll, and we had to tramp another MY SOMALI BOOK 57 two or three miles, each carrying an aoiil head and Ehni a haunch of meat in addition, before the}^ were captured. The caravan had long since vanished out of sight in the open bush that bordered the northern edge of the Plain. Fortunately we were on a regular caravan track, but it was 8 o'clock before we arrived in camp and that was not as far on as we had originally intended. The Plain of Tuyo left behind, we were on the march in the Khansa bush next day, when soon after day- break we crossed the trail of a leopard's " kill." We followed it for a couple of miles to a bush where the " kill " (a kid) had been devoured and practically nothing left ; there were two leopards, apparently a mother and a nearly full-grown cub. We tracked them on again for an hour or so, the soil being unusually favourable, and marked them down at length in a thicket of thorn bushes. Then I sent on a messenger to the caravan to order a halt for the day, having decided to sit up and try and draw the leopards with a goat in the afternoon. To that end I gave them from Still 5 p.m. with no result, which was disappoint- ing, for I had the kodak carefully fixed up in the tree beside me in the hope of an opportunity for a " snap " before bringing the rifle into use ! Then with the nine men that were all I could raise we started a beat. It was pretty certain that the line a leopard would take on breaking cover would be towards another big thicket a quarter of a mile away, towards which they could go under cover all the way except for an open patch not fifteen 3^ards across. So I took up my position behind a bush commanding 58 MY 'SOMALI BOOK this, about ten yards to one side. As it was bound to be a case of quick snap-shooting at close range, if any- thing, and neither of the beasts was a big one, I decided that the 12-bore with buckshot was the best weapon to use. After a certain amount of uproar the cub broke, spotted me and tried to get back but was rolled over just in time, a female about three-quarters grown. Soon after the mother came but saw me before she was clear of the thicket, and my snap shot as she bolted back was too late. After that nothing would move her ; the thorn bush would not burn and was impene- trable to anything less than half an hour's work with axes. The sun was going down and we had to give her up. Meanwhile, for the last fifteen minutes another leopard had been making its voice heard not far off, presumably the male calling to his mate. He did not seem to be more than two or three hundred yards away, so I thought it might be worth while tying up the goat for him in the dusk. To think was to do, and I went back to the old tree. I had not been ready more than three or four minutes when a ivardha appeared and after a minute's recon- noitring went for the goat. I threw a cartridge at the brute, but he took no notice and seized the goat in the middle of the back. The only remedy left, I let go with my -500 and he staggered and disappeared. I sat tight, as the shot did not appear to have worried the leopard, who was talking again. Ten minutes passed and it was getting too dark, when there was a rush of a different kind, and it was the leopard this time that had the goat by the throat. There was just hght enough to see him dimly. " At last ! " I MY SOMALI BOOK 59 thought, and was trying to make sure which end of the leopard was head and which was tail, when the vague forms of two big hyaenas a few feet to one side caught the corner of my eye. They caught the leopard's eye too, and to my amazement he turned tail and slipped away into the thicket behind my tree, for all the world like a cat caught stealing the cream, while the wardhas went in to dispose of his dinner ! I was never more disgusted in my life. Big, powerful brute though the Spotted Hysena is, I would never have believed that even a pair of them would venture to attack a good-sized leopard, as this one appeared to be, with his double armoury of tooth and claw, and his agility so superior to their own ; and these two had not, so far as I saw, made any motion to attack. On the other hand, the ivardha in Somaliland, as I have already shown, seems to be undoubtedly a more aggressive animal than hysenas elsewhere, and if he did make up his mind to attack a leopard I am not sure that he would always come off second best. His hide is tough and would afford very considerable protection against the leopard's claws, while a single bite from those terrible jaws might suffice to disable the leopard effectually. On the present occasion the leopard, who is a re- markable compound of daring and caution, had probably seen more than was possible to me, and knew that the numbers against him were overwhelming, for hardly a minute had elapsed before there were either six or seven hysenas fighting and tearing at the still warm corpse of the unfortunate goat. A ghastly orgie ! I held my hand until it was too dark to see the 60 MY SOMALI BOOK leopard if he did return (there was no moon), and then opened fire, aiming after a fashion by ear instead of eye. I fired seven shots, but thej^ did not seem to mind much, though one dropped and I hit another. Then I called up the shikaris and came down. I found that the dead hyaena had already been more or less torn to bits b}^ his brethren, and the head (the skull was the only part of him I wanted) had disappeared. There was no more to be done, but to go back to cam]3 to dinner and cogitate on the good luck of Somali leopards in general. I have since learned that it is not very unusual for two or more h3^8enas in Somaliland to combine to drive a leopard, especially a small one, from its kill. And, of course, individual temperaments vary among beasts as among men. A leopard with less than the usual courage of its race would probably yield its kill without a struggle to an exceptionally bold hysena. Next morning's march was a long one, starting at 4 a.m., Elmi and I travelled several miles out of our way tracking a lesser kudu with a good head. Three times he let us approach within sixty or sevent}^ j^ards, standing, invisible, behind a bush, and would then dash off without giving a chance. I did not get a shot at him and arrived in camp to breakfast at 1 o'clock, having done about 25 miles. An afternoon march of 15 miles brought us to Adadleh, where I went to bed rather weary and with a touch of fever. The next morning I ought to have got a couple of dhero, but was still a bit feverish and shaky and could not hold straight. Crossing the Jerato Pass we saw a pair of dark-coloured animals, looking like small MY SOMALI BOOK 61 goats, grazing on the rocky hill-side ; the glass showed one of them to have short straight horns. I thought they might be klipspringer, the shooting of which at that time was prohibited. I asked Elmi, but he did not know the Enghsh (or rather Dutch) name. He called them " alah'it,'" and said he knew of no regula- tion against shooting them. I thought that was good enough, especially as, I don't know why, I had an idea that the klipspringer was a reddish beast. The klipspringer (Somali alakdt, as I was soon to discover !) is an agile little antelope by no means x^ given to standing to be potted at. But facilis est descensus . . . ; since to shoot them was against the law of the land, these two made no objection to my approaching within fifty yards, they were close to the camel track and my being with the caravan probably disarmed their suspicions. I shot the buck, knocking a lot of hair out of him, rather spoiling the skin which I wanted ; so I proceeded to commit the further crime of shooting the doe, who had seemed little alarmed ; she was bigger than her mate. The khpspringer has a pecuhar coat with bristly 62 MY SOMALI BOOK hairs loosely put in ; the hairs dark green banded with white, so that the general effect is a pretty greyish- green. The buck's horns are something like a bigger edition of the dik-dik's, some four inches in length. At midday we reached Mandera, where I was sur- prised to find H. encamped. He had been suffering from fever and had taken two or three weeks' leave for a change in the hills. I decided to spend the night with him, and have a last try for lesser kudu in the morning, sending the caravan, however, on ahead. Elmi and I being mounted could do the journey to Berbera in a day less without difficulty, and could carry all we wanted for a couple of days on our animals. It was from H. that I learned that the alakut is the klipspringer, so that I had committed a heinous breach of regulations. Of course I should never have dreamt of doing it intentionally, but the klipspringer is not rare, nor as a rule too easy to shoot, so there was no reason why it should be so rigorously protected, on the same footing as the elephant alone. As a contrast, my license would have permitted me, if I could and would, to shoot ten dihatag or baira, both decidedly rarer and more worthy of protection than the klipspringer, as I pointed out at the time. These anomalies have since been rectified, the two last-named species having been accorded a greater measure of protection, and the prohibition against shooting the klipspringer removed. Under the circumstances I must confess my repentance for having added another species to my bag was but half-hearted. K1\EK-BED NEAR DAGA HAYEK. KLIPSPEIXGEK. ITofacep. 62. MY SOMALI BOOK 63 The following morning H. accompanied me with half a dozen men behind to try a drive as a last resource if necessary. I seemed to be in luck, for after half an hour we came across a bull with fair head who stopped to look at us from behind a bush some eighty yards away. I could see nothing but the tips of his horns, but risked a shot at where I thought his shoulder ought to be. However, his shoulder was not there, or my bullet was turned by a branch, and he bounded away untouched. Then, as a last resort, we sent the men round to try a beat from the direction in which he had gone. I looked for a good tree, and climbed up, only to beat a hasty retreat, ingloriously driven out by a colony of vicious red ants. The white ants were less disobliging and presently one of their lofty edifices provided me with a fairly secure perch and a good view, with H. lower down, relieving me of the look-out on one side. After half an hour the beat began, and presently the cries told us that there were kudu afoot. At length H. was the first to see a bull approaching on the left quietly enough. He carried a fair head, and I fired as he passed sixty yards away ; at the shot he staggered and gave a bound, then walked, in rather dazed fashion, towards me, not knowing whence the sudden shock had come. He stood at about forty yards with his head up, and a bullet in the throat brought him down. The head was a fair one though hardly good, rather smaller than the one I had missed, and which H.'s shikari said had broken back in the drive. H. had 64 MY SOMALT BOOK brought me luck — my bag would have been incomplete without a lesser kudu. Several of the larger antelopes are more or less ungainly, but the lesser kudu need fear no comparisons. The poise of the elegant head, and the grace of the bound with which it clears the highest bush in its way are perfect, and the pretty striped coat is in keeping with the rest. Several of the Somali antelopes are lovely creatures, but the consensus of opinion awards the palm of beauty to the lesser kudu and, I think, with justice. Breakfast with H., and then, leaving the kudu head and skin to be dried and sent after me, Elmi and I started at about 1.30 p.m. to ride the 25 miles to Deragodleh. After passing Lafarug we began to look out for dhero, as I had yet to obtain a specimen of the lowland varietv. At about 5 o'clock we viewed a party of half a dozen as we thought. On nearer approach they struck me as very tall and brown for dhero, and next minute their long necks became more in evidence and betrayed the gerenuk, in unusually open country for them, which explained our mistake. The big buck behind showed a fine pair of horns and I determined to have them. A convenient nullah gave me the opportunity of getting within a hundred yards out of sight, and I bagged the best gereniih I had come across, 14-inch horns. The head strapped on behind the mule's saddle, we rode on to Deragodleh, arriving there after dark. There I met an old Somali who had been a havildar MY SOMALI BOOK 65 in the Aden Police, at that time under my charge, and we had a haldi (chat) over tea at the coffee-shop : coffee being what a Somali " coffee-shop " does not produce. Moving on at 4 a.m., soon after daylight w^e found a couple of dhero bucks feeding with unexpected tame- ness near a flock of sheep. I shot one at short range, letting the second go as his head was only average. Further on we saw several small lots of dhero^ but only one good buck, which was duly bagged, horns 11 J inches. The lowland dhero {G. Pelzelni) much resembles in appearance and habits its relative of the higher altitudes {G. Spekei), differing in certain details of colouration and in the absence of a nasal prominence. The horns of the buck also average longer while those of the doe, on the contrary, are rather smaller. Back in Berbera by 9.30 a.m. I had just time to pay off my following, pack up, get my kit and trophies through the customs, and catch the steamer to Aden the same afternoon. A few concluding remarks on this trip. I had not got my lion ; but otherwise, for the short time at my disposal, the trip had been a distinct success, and I had learnt a great deal. That this was so was in no small measure due to the valuable assistance and advice for which I was indebted to H. A word of praise to Elmi Hirsi, one of the most decent Somalis I have known, and a really first-class shikari, at any rate in his own country. Old John did splendidly, although his donkey broke down, so that after the first day he had to walk every yard of the way, and the caravan travelled in 25 days some 350 miles. 66 MY SOMALI BOOK The '355 proved an effective rifle on the whole, but a rather lower trajectory would have been more useful at the longer ranges. And it failed to prove itself consistently powerful enough for oryx — being some- what deficient in smashing power. t/--i ^ '''^\r'^^=>! CHAPTER VI Plans for a second trip — Things go wrong — M.'s success — My new battery — An aggravating delay — Start again — Berbera once more — Difficulties — AJxlilleh Ashur — The rest of my following— The kJiarif — Start for Har- geisa — In the Reserve : partridges : sand-grouse — Weaver-birds : how to keep a husband out of mischief — Hitting a friend when he is down — Pork in sanctuary — -Hargeisa : its inhabitants — The Emperor Menelek : " sacrament rations " — An irrelevant yarn : Colonial Office exports — The A. P. O.'s poultry — An ill-return for my host's hospitality. Eighteen months later came the end of my time in Aden, with fifteen months' furlough. My intention was to put in the first three months of my leave in Somaliland before going home. But " the best laid schemes of mice and men . . . " ! Ten days before my leave was due, the Civil Surgeon, examining my throat which was giving trouble, said I was not fit for a shooting trip and must go straight home. Pleas- ing that, under the circumstances ! However, there was no help for it. I had only had six months at home in eleven years, and was, no doubt, a good deal run down after three and a half years in Aden ; and I might hope to go to Somaliland at the end of my furlough instead of the beginning in better condition for hard work. I had already made most of the arrangements for my trip, and through H. had engaged as head shikari one Abdilleh (or Abdillahi) Ashur, a man with a great reputation. I now passed him on to a friend, M., of 68 MY SOMALI BOOK the British Infantry Regiment then in Aden, com- mended the latter to H., wished him luck and departed homewards. M. came home in December, lunched with me in Town, and told me all about his very successful two months' shoot. He had bagged several lions and a greater kudu with horns of record spread. Abdilleh, he said, liad done him very well. Of course I was keener than ever, and arranged to go out in June (1909), which would give me nearly three months. I wrote to ask H. to engage shikaris, including Abdilleh, and to buy camels for me. I had also written to H.M.'s Minister in Abyssinia to apply for a permit to shoot in Abyssinian territory, as I wanted to visit Ogiiden. Meanwhile I was getting together my battery, a more powerful one than I had on the first trip. It consisted of the following : — {a) A D.B. 12-bore Paradox gun by Holland and Holland, shooting a Magnum charge of 33 grains revolver Cordite and a 735 grain bullet (hollow-pointed, also 780 grains solid). {h) A D.B. •450/-400 Cordite rifle by Watson, shooting the standard charge of 60 grains Cordite (or rather the Axite equivalent in my cartridges) and a 400 grain bullet. (c) A -318 " Accelerated Express " magazine rifle by Westley Richards, shooting 50 grains Axite and a 250 grain bullet, with a muzzle velocity of 2500 f.s. (d) A -300 " Sherwood " miniature rifle for small animals and birds. The -318, I considered, should be an ideal weapon MY SOMALI BOOK 69 for general sliooting in Somaliland. As to the Paradox, it remained to be seen hoAV far it would bear me out in my fixed opinion that a good ball-and-shot gun is the best type of weapon for dealing with dangerous thin-skiinied game : this by reason of its superior handiness combined with the consistent stopping power of a very heavy bullet with moderate velocity. The •400 was intended to supplement both and to deal with rhino if required. At the last moment an unexpected difficulty arose regarding the issue of my permit to shoot in British Somaliland, which I need not go into now as it came right in the end, but one result of which was that H., believing my plans changed, could of course make no arrangements for me, and he left Somaliland on leave before hearing that I was definitely going out. In the second place, the uncertainty caused an exas- perating delay of three weeks in my start from England. However, at length I found myself on the 20 th July back in Berbera, with my caravan to be got together instead of all being ready for me as I had hoped. My first anxiety was to get hold of a good head shikari. x\bdilleli Ashur was away up country, my old friend Elmi Hirsi was not available, nor were one or two others whom I knew by reputation. Of course several candidates turned up, and P., the District Officer at Berbera, gave me a lot of assistance. Eventually I engaged provisionally two Midgans, who had good certificates from men I knew ; but I was not satisfied. The other Somalis look down on the Midgans, so that a Midgan head shikari would necessitate my 70 MY SOMALI BOOK engaging a separate " head man " to run the caravan, which I particularly did not want to do. Meanwhile P. had kindly wired to the post nearest to where Abdilleh's section of the Habr Awal were then believed to be pasturing. He was found and to my great relief turned up on the 22nd. We soon came to terms and I sacked the two Midgans with some consolatory bakshish. By the evening of the following day, the caravan was practically ready. I had bought a riding mule for 1255. and twelve camels at an average price of 55s., not cheap, as Government were buying and prices were up. I had not been able to bring a pony with me this time and it was difficult to get one in Berbera. They brought me a three- year-old to try, and I promptly fell off, saddle and all ; it was so small that the girths could not be made tight enough ! Eventually I picked up an old screw that looked as if he might have enough work in him for marching purposes. Elmi Farali, my third shikari of 1907, came with me again in the same capacity ; my No. 2 this time was one Henduleh, of the Habr Yunis sub-tribe, whose weak point was his inability to speak any language but his own. With Elmi I had to try and talk Arabic, while my medium of communication with Abdilleh was indifferently Hindustani or English. The personal following which I brought over from Aden consisted of an Indian police orderly named Iddu Khan, a good man though not brilliant of intellect, and a Somali, named Abdi, as cook. I had known the latter for two or three years, but was taking his cooking capacities very nmcli on trust. It had not seemed MY SOMALI BOOK 71 worth while sending for John all the way from India, where he was waiting for my return. I was only going to shoot in the Western District of the Protectorate, and was told that I had better make straight, in the first instance, for Hargeisa, where J., the Political Officer in charge, had his head- quarters. This was not exactly what I had wanted to do, as it would involve a loss of several shooting days, but that could not be helped, and on the 24th July the caravan left Berbera. I stayed another night in Berbera, as at that time of the year I had no desire to have to accommodate my pace to that of the caravan across the Maritime Plain, and P. kindly offered me a good riding-camel to get me quickly over the first two or three marches. Berbera, in July, when the hot kharif wind is blowing and the atmosphere is thick with whirling sand, is not an abode of bliss. But still less is there any joy in riding in the kharif across the hot sands of the Mari- time Plain. Fortunately, however, during the after- noon and evening the kharif dies down, so I was able on the afternoon of the 28th to ride the twenty-five miles straight through to Deragodleh comfortably enough. Once you are used to it, a good riding-camel is, to my mind, provided the going is fairly level, an eminently satisfactory steed for a long distance ride. I say a good one advisedly, for few things are calculated to cause one more unalloyed misery and discomfort than a compulsory ride of even a few miles on an un- trained or baggage camel — experto crede. Next morning, just after sunrise, I passed within a few yards of a great marabou stork standing upon one 72 MY SOMALI BOOK leg in an attitude of profound meditation. I had not the kodak with mc, or should have stopped to take his picture. That was the only time I came across .-;-, this weird bird, though I y^h^\ believe they are not un- \\l \j I overtook the caravan at 1^, WjjJ Lafarug, whence I sent P.'s ;; n I'V camel back to Berbera. From ^^^i^\